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No. 8

JUNE, 1928

Men Who Tithe

WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD

Religious Training

JAMES J. DAVIS

The Hill Cumorah

PRESIDENT A. W. IVINS

Founded on Revelation

PRESIDENT C. W. NIBLEY

CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

WILLARD W. BEAN

BRIGHAM YOUNG IN 1860

PRESTON NIBLEY

STORIES— EDEN— THE
MARRY-GO-ROUND

ALBERT R. LYMAN— EDNA NELSON

SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES

OFFER

SPECIAL SUMMER

EXCURSION FARES

FROM SALT LAKE CITY OR OGDEN

TO LOS ANGELES AND RETURN BOTH WAYS VIA
SAN FRANCISCO .

TO LOS ANGELES VIA SAN FRANCISCO RETURNING
DIRECT OR ROUTE REVERSED .

$40.00

$47.50

Proportionately low fares from all other points in UTAH, IDAHO and MONTANA
STOPOVERS ALLOWED AT ALL POINTS

TICKETS ON SALE DAILY MAY 15TH TO SEPT. 30TH
FINAL RETURN LIMIT OCT. 31ST

For further information CALL, WRITE or PHONE
PRESS BANCROFT, GENERAL AGENT

41 SO. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY

PHOPJE WASATCH 3008—3078

Utah’s Oldest Continuous Mercantile House

High Ideals

From the day of its incc,»tion, this firm has been guided by high ideals of business
conduct: To build solidly, with the future ever in mind —

To make a friend, or strengthen a friendship, by every transaction —

To regard this business as a public service — not merely as the bartering of
merchandise —

To remember always the priceless value of a good name —

To do our share in the upbuilding of a community —

To retain the personal touch — to have the same interest in every eustomer, when we
are big, tliat we had when we were small —

To insist on quality, remembering that no price is low enough to justify inferior
goods—

To give our patrons always the advantage of large selections in all lines of
merchandise —

To be conservative in our ADVERTISING and modest in our claims —

Remember you always pay less at DINWOODEY’S.

ESTABLISHED 1857

DINWOODEY’S

"GOOD FURNITURE *'

U'HBN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

ANNOUNCEMENT

'"T" HE President and Directors of Beneficial Life Insurance Company wish to
1 announce that by unanimous vote of the entire stock the Beneficial is now
converted into a participating company as of January 1st, 1928. Beginning
January 1st. 1929, we will, as often and in such amounts as is consistent with safety,
distribute to the policyholders, all future net earnings of the company in excess of
3 1/3 percent on the stockholders investment. This participating benefit extends
to all those now holding non-participating policies in the company as well as to
holders of participating policies. All new business will be written at the low non¬
participating premium rates of the company. None the less, it will be fully partici¬
pating. This will make the Beneficial Life, to all intents and purposes, a mutual
company, operating on a lower premium basis than any participating company we
know of.

With conservative and efficient control and management assured the company
will be able to supply the public with the best in life insurance.

BENEFICIAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.

President.

The Management has pleasure in announcing to the Public that the purpose of the
present owners of the Beneficial Life Insurance Company in acquiring their holdings was not to
speculate or to invest but solely to make it possible to direct the affairs of the company in the
interest of the policyholders, thereby furnishing the public THE VERY BEST THERE IS IN
LIFE INSURANCE AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE COST.

Beneficial policies are issued on the life of any insurable risk — men, women and children,
from one day old to age sixty-five. Our juvenile insurance is written on standard forms,
making it possible for the entire family to be covered by BENEFICIAL LIFE INSURANCE.

Through the splendid support and confidence of the public the Beneficial has become
one of the large financial institutions of the west and one of the leading insurance companies
of the intermountain country. Although we have enjoyed a phenomenal growth in the past,
the inauguration of this new participating plan should bring even greater results for the future.

PARTICIPATING POLICIES AT LOW NON-PARTICIPATING RATES

It will pay you to see a representative of the Beneficial Life who will be pleased to
furnish, without obligation, information and advice on your insurance problems.

HOME OFFICE — VERMONT BUILDING — SALT LAKE CITY

DIRECTORS:

A. W. IVINS
C. W. NIBLEY

HEBER J. GRANT JOHN C. CUTLER

GEO. J. CANNON
B. F. GRANT
AXEL B. C. OHLSON

LORENZO N. STOHL
JOSEPH F. SMITH

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

Incomparable

SALT AIR

Utah’s greatest pleasure resort, opened May 26
to the pleasure-seeking public for the 1928 summer
season.

FREE DANCING on the world’s largest and
finest dance floor to the latest dance hits by Don Tibbs
and his famous 14-piece orchestra awaits all who enjoy
stepping to the light fantastic.

Take a dip in SALTAIR where you float like a
cork — try to sink — you can’t. 1000 clean, private
bath houses, each equipped with a fresh-water shower.
Bathers this season are permitted to roam the resort
in their swimming regalia and visit the concessions
with the exception of the dance floor.

Train schedule, via the Saltair Electric, is as
follows;

7:15 and 9:15 a. m., 12 noon, 2 p. m.

And Every Half Hour. All Concessions Open

35c

ROUND TRIP FARE
Including Admission

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

•I-

IMPROVEMENT ERA

JUNE, 1928

Pres. Heber J. Grant Hugh J. Cannon

Editor Associate Editor

Melvin J. Ballard, Business Manager

Organ of the Priesthood Quorums, the Young Men's
Mutual Improvement Associations and the Schools of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

CONTENTS

Portrait of President Brigham Young - - - Frontispiece

In Blossom Time. A Poem - - Joseph Longking Townsend 631

Men Who Tithe . William G. Shepherd 633

Foolish things. A Poem - - - Shirley Rei Gudmundsen 645

The Right Way OF Tithing . . - . Albert R. Lyman 646

Humility . 646

The Necessity of Religious Training in Modern Education

James J . Davis, U. S. Sec’y of Labor 647
Brigham Young AS Seen IN 1860. Illustrated - Preston Nibley 651
Church Founded Upon Revelation - Prest. Charles W. Nibley 658

Honored Laborers . Carlyle 664

Our Very Present Help ...... Amicus 665

An Episode of Euthanasia. A Poem - Joseph Longking Townsend 671
Sunlight and Health . . . . George H. Maaghan 672

Smoke. A Poem . . . - . Grace Ingles Frost STh

Hill Ramah — Hill Cumorah. Photo . 674

The Hill Cumorah - - , - - Prest. Anthony W. Ivins 675

What We Need. a Poem - - Lula Greene Richards 681

Change of Sentiment. Illustrated - - Willard W. Bean 682

Make More of Family Life - - - Harriet Beecher Stowe 687

The Wisdom of the Wise - - - George Albert Smith. Jr. 688

The Sinner’s Pr.yyer. A Poem - - - E. Cecil McCavin 690

Knowledge of Technique . . . . Charles Kent 69 1

Pioneer Days in Arizona - - - - LeRoi C. Snow 692

Worldly Paradise. Illustrated - Dr. George w. Middleton 693
Houses. A Poem ----- Mrs. Merling D. Clyde 695

Eden. A Story . Albert R. Lyman 696

When You Look at the Stars. A Poem - Bertha A. Kleinman 700
The MARRY-GO-ROUND. A Story - - - Edna Nelson 70!

The Unlucky Draw . Elmer A. Graff 703

Messages from the Missions. Illustrated - - - 704

Priesthood Quorums - . 708

Mutual Work . 709

Passing Events . 715

Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City. Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance
for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October, 1917,
authorized on July 2, 1918.

Manuscripts submitted without the statement. "At usual rates.” are considered free con¬
tributions. Photographs, unless their return is especially requested, will be destroyed.

Published monthly at Salt Lake City: $2 oer annum. Address: Room 406 Church
Office Building.

-K

EDITOR’S ANNOUMCEMENTS

The article "Men Who Tithe" , in this
number of the Era, was written by a na¬
tionally eminent author and first published
by The World’s Work. In an interesting
way, it points out the fact that many of
our country’s most successful men consider
themselves partners with God, to whom
they gladly pay a tenth or more of all
their income. Some of our readers might
have had the idea that the Latter-day
Saints are the only people who observe
the law of tithing, or that it applies only
to us. The article shows, however, that
it is a fundamental principle in the lives
of many others, who consider its observ¬
ance necessary to their success and hap¬
piness, The example of these various men
is worthy of our most sincere consideration
and emulation in the matter of tithing;
except that, in recognizing God as out
partner, we must recognize his Church —
the channel through which he operates.
We firmly believe that, being a law of
God, tithing should properly be paid to
the Church of God, and be distributed,
for the good of humanity, through God’s
recognized servants.

The Era is justly proud in having
among its contributors this month an out¬
standing man of the Nation. U. S. Sec¬
retary of Labor James J. Davis, on in¬
vitation of Superintendent George Albert
Smith of the Y. M. M. 1. A., wrote “The
Necessity of Religious Training in Modern
Education” (page 647) especially for
the Era. We heartily recommend the ar¬
ticle to our readers.

If you have been uncertain as to the
location of the hill Cumorah, if you have
wondered whether Ramah and Cumorah
were the same hill, and whether it was
located in North or South America, you
can settle your mind pn that point by
reading President A. W. Ivins’ sermon
published in this number (page 675).
There has been much argument on this
question, and the Era has received many
letters in which inquiry was made as to the
viewpoint of the Church regarding it
There should be no further need of dis¬

cussion or inquiry about this matter; Pres¬
ident Ivins has officially placed Ramah
and Cumorah, and thus it should stand for
all time.

June 1 will be the birthday anniversary
of the mighty Pioneer and Prophet of
God — President Brigham Young. With the
multitude in “Motmondom”, we pause to
give especial respect and reverence to
his honored name and memory on his
natal day. For a most interesting and
vivid pen picture of the Prophet in 1860.
read the article by Preston Nibley, begin¬
ning on page 651. The description was
written by Captain Richard F. Burton,
world-renowned traveler, who was visiting
for a few days at that time in the “City of
the Saints”. You’ll find many ot’Her in¬
teresting items in the article.

Salesmanship is the basic factor of our
modern business life. And what is adver¬
tising but group salesmanship? As all
sales work is not intensive — done with an
order book and pencil at hand, — so all
advertising is not placed with the expecta¬
tion of a certain percentage of direct re¬
turns. Often the “best salesman on the
force” is appointed to form the acquaint¬
ance of a prospective buyer and associate
with him in every way possible; is carefully
instructed to avoid any reference to goods
or buying, but diplomatically to estab¬
lish his confidence and good will. This
form of missionary work, in both per¬
sonal salesmanship and advertising, is
necessary to the success of big business.
Without the confidence and good will of
the buying public, any business firm would
soon “go to the wall”. To establish this
necessary confidence and good will, and to
disseminate general information, much
general advertising must be done through¬
out business. As an effective medium for
general advertising, the Improvement Era
stands without a peer in the intermoun¬
tain country. It enters the homes of sub¬
scribers with dignity and prestige, and re¬
mains as an appreciated, permanent piece
of literature. Choose the Era for effective
general advertising.

In Blossom Time

Oh, the miracle of life!

Oh, the resurrection’s boon!

Out of the shroud another birth.

Another season in tune

With the infinite plan of creation.

In the swing of the planet’s range.

To renew all life, for there is no death
In the ceaseless circle of change.

Life in the clear, warm air;

Life in the soil below;

Life in the herb and shrub and tree
Where the vital currents flow
With the pulsing rhythm of beauty,

With the genesis of clime —

And out of the promise springs the glow
Of the beautiful blossom time.

In those creative schools wherein God’s plan
Once formed the new designs for future earths.
What variations of these flowers began
In richer guise of new creative births?

Shall not the humble pansy gorgeous bloom
In some more perfect symbol of the heart?

Shall not the rose more attributes assume —
Upon some future life more joy impart?

O life infinite! What is thine is mine!

I wait, I wait! Life grows into its prime.

The life of earth and Heaven is divine —

No end shall ever be to blossom time.

Maywood. California JOSEPH LONGKING TOWNSEND

Improvement Era*

Vol. XXXI

JUNE, 1928

No. 8

Men Who Tithe*

By William G. Shepherd

The names of the men who tithe, whose experiences are described in this article, have pur¬
posely been omitted, because the subject we wish to stress is tithing and not mere material success.
Tithing is a spiritual exercise, or a psychological experiment, or a religious duty, as you will.
The material rewards, extraordinary as they are, nevertheless are accounted only as secondary
benefits by the men who practice tithing. Any reader who is sufficiently interested to ask us
for the name and address of any or all of the men mentioned, can get them from us upon applica¬
tion, provided he assures us he makes the request in search of further light on the subject and
not out of idle curiosity. — Editors The World's Work.

Me walked slowly through the empty rooms of the little
factory. He was alone in the building. As yet the machin¬
ery was not in place.

He was starting over in life; his first attempt at business had
not been a success. The tiny string of credit which he had to
depend upon in his new venture was made up of the faith of a few
close friends rather than the calculated, mathematical confidence of
banks.

When he came to a remote corner of one of the upper floors he
knelt and closed his eyes and prayed.

Then he got up and went out into the world again and began
his hard business fight. The machinery came, at last, and he started
to make furniture. He borrowed and borrowed; his improving
business records strengthened his credit.

But there was a mystery about him in the fields of credit. Al¬
though he began to look more and more safe to the credit men, he
seemed to insist on giving money away. While he was borrowing,
he gave. Sometimes he said “no” to those who asked for financial
aid for religious or philanthropic purposes. But when he did say
“yes,” he said it with an alacrity that astonished the recipient. He
did not give money to foolish ventures or to unsound enterprises,
but it was a puzzling thing to the bankers to have him borrow from
them while he was giving money freely to help others who were
finding the world a hard place to live in.

But his business grew; within a few years it became well-
established; his furniture became known to the trade for its honest

♦From The World's Work of July, 1924. Copyright by The World's Work, Doubleday,
Doran 8 Co., Inc.

634

IMPROVEMENT ERA

quality. At last, there came a time when borrowing was no longer
necessary.

His tiny string of credit had become a thousand-stranded cable;
he was one of the marked successes in the furniture world.

When he died, after a well-rounded life, the mystery of his
gifts was explained. It seemed that, during all his business career,
he had considered that the money which he borrowed, the money
which he earned, and the money which he gave away was not his
own money at all; it was God's money.

Over his casket, that day of the funeral, the clergyman of the
church which he had attended told the story.

“I have carried a secret about our friend,” ran the gist of the
clergyman’s story, “which I have never been able to reveal until now.
He asked me never to tell it while he was alive.

“When he was making his second start in life, so he told me,
he knelt in an empty room in his new factory, and he told God
that he wanted to take Him into partnership; that one-tenth of all
the earnings should go to Him; and that he would use the money
in all his business ventures as if it were God’s money.

“That was the secret of his life,” said the clergyman.

Then, at last, the bankers and the other furniture manufac¬
turers and his friends and associates knew why this man had given
away money even while he was borrowing it.

One of the great furniture manufacturers of Grand Rapids
recently told me this story; every other manufacturer in that great
furniture center knows about the good furniture that was made with
God’s money.

It would be a posthumous violation of this furniture manu¬
facturer’s secret to give his name in this widely read magazine.

“It’s a silent partnership, you know,” he told his clergyman-
confessor.

But there’s many a home in the United States today that is
graced with the honest furniture that was made by this man with
what he considered God’s funds.

A Seattle Girl, Thirty Years Ago

I don’t suppose that any one knows where that Salvation
Army girl is now.

"CHARLIE” PAGE, of Tulsa and Sands Springs, Oklahoma, paid his first
tithe when he was down to his last dollar and fifteen cents. He did a little
better than a tenth, as he gave the fifteen cents. Since then he has been working
with God’s money and it has come in millions through the discovery of oil.
Everything Page has touched since he paid that first fifteen cents has coined money
for him. It is as much God’s money as his, he says.

MEN WHO TITHE

1535

If you were to hunt for her, you would have to seek among
white-haired women and find one who had been a Salvation Army
girl in the city of Seattle about thirty years ago. And then you
would have to refresh her memory, for the incident was a passing
one — very small and easily forgotten.

She was standing on the sidewalk, so the story goes, when a
young man came out of a saloon. She smiled and shook her tambou¬
rine at him. She didn’t know that this young man had been a
partner of “Dude” Lewis in the real estate business, and that the
firm was busted; she didn’t know that “Dude” Lewis was, a quarter
of a century or more later, to be known as United States Senator
J. Ham Lewis. Neither did she know that this young man was to
become, in a strange way, one of the rich oil-finders of the United
States — Charles Page, of Tulsa and Sand Springs, Oklahoma. So
she only smiled and shook her tambourine.

“I’m broke,” said the young man. “I’m down to my last
dollar.”

“Well, why don’t you tithe?” she asked, still smiling.

“Tithe? What does that mean?” asked the young fellow.

“Why, the Bible says that we ought to give one-tenth of what
we have to the Lord,” she explained.

“All right!” said the youth. “I’ve got a dollar and fifteen
cents. I’ll do better than one-tenth. I’ll give fifteen cents.”

He tossed the fifteen cents into the tambourine and went his

way.

You’d have to ask this white-haired woman, if you found her.
whether she remembered this passing incident; and she would prob¬
ably be unable to recall it. It was only a case of youth meeting a
girl in a poke bonnet, a farmer boy away from home in rather
shabby clothes on the sidewalk of an uncouth town, and chatting
and smiling together for a moment and then going their separate
ways.

But, if you could find her, you could show her an amazing
thing; you could show her that her laughing Bible lesson was per¬
haps the most important thing she ever did in her life.

From that day, so they tell you in Tulsa, Charles Page
“tithed,” and more than “tithed.”

“Charlie” Page has been working with “God’s money” ever

since.

His luck at striking oil has been phenomenal; there is a tradi¬
tion in the oil fields of the country that “Charlie” Page never misses
a “hole.” Where he drills oil comes, they say. You cannot get
Page to talk about his “partnership”; it is his own private affair.
But once he told a friend, in speaking of his success at drilling;

“I think I’ve missed only two boles in my life. You see, I

636*

IMPROVEMENT ERA

couldn’t miss, because I was in partnership with the Big Fellow and
He made geology.”

A Children’s Ideal Community

If there is a finer sight in this country than Sand Springs,
Oklahoma, I haven’t encountered it. It is a town built entirely
around children who have been unfortunate in life.

“Charlie” Page’s tithes did not go into the church; they went
into helping children who were unlucky. He built himself a home
in the country, outside of Tulsa, some years ago; then he built an¬
other home near by for children. There wasn’t room in his own
house for all the children in trouble. That was twenty or more
years ago.

Today, if you will walk up toward the brick building which
houses “Charlie” Page’s children, you will be met with an onrush
of boys and girls that may sweep you off your feet. That Salvation
Army girl would like to see it. They all called him “Daddy” the
day I went there with him. At least fifty of them tried to reach
him and maul him.

There were great grounds, grassy and shaded with trees, and
the children seemed to be running toward us from all directions.
Upstairs in the nursery we saw little children playing who were too
young to run, but they laughed when big “Charlie” Page came into
the room. In other rooms we saw at least half a dozen tiny babies,
too young to crawl, with nurses caring for them. When God’s
money takes care of babies it asks no questions.

Everything that “Charlie” Page has done to help these chil¬
dren has developed into a successful business enterprise; they’d tell
you all about this tradition in Tulsa. He built a street car line to
Tulsa from Sand Springs, and that paid. Land values went up out
there and many people built homes in Sand Springs. He established
a small bottling plant to bottle the spring water for use in the
children’s house, and the public began to buy it for table use. He
wanted the children to have fresh vegetables, and his gardens have
grown until they show on the right side of the ledger. He started
a small plant to can vegetables and fruit for the children; now his
canning business is an important industry.

Once “Charlie” Page went to New York. At Coney Island
he saw the famous merry-go-round, said to be the largest ever made.
There never was anything too good for the Sand Springs children;
wherefore Page instructed the manufacturer of this merry-go-round
to make another and to ship it, music and all, to Sand Springs.

Around that merry-go-round has grown up one of the finest
amusement parks in the country; it is where Tulsa goes to play.
Every concession is held by a mother of one of the children in the

MEN WHO TITHE

637

home, I was told. Page wanted his children to learn to swim —
and he showed me a huge pool, almost a little lake, where not only
his children, but all the children and all the adults of the city of
Tulsa and the entire countryside come to cool off during the hot
Oklahoma days. The bath houses pay; everything pays.

Out of the big zoo, at Christmas time, “Charlie” Page takes
a Christmas dinner for his children that cannot be equalled in the
United States; there is bear meat and rabbit and venison and wild
bird meat and fish of all kinds.

Tell it to the Bees

The folks laugh pleasantly, at Tulsa, when they tell you
about how “Charlie” Page’s enterprises always succeed. They have
this story about him:

He made up his mind that it would be interesting to have a
hobby — something that wouldn’t turn into a profitable business on
his hands. A friend suggested bees. Page sent East for a bee expert.

The expert brought samples of bees.

“You’ll have to plant alfalfa for this one and clover for this
one,” explained the expert, describing the peculiarities of each variety
of bee. Page listened patiently until the expert was through. Then
he said:

“Blankety blank! Those aren’t the kinds of bees I want. I
want a bee that you can turn loose to play, not work. I want one
that you can tell: ‘Here, bee! Here’s the whole great state of Okla¬
homa. Go out and have a good time and find some honey. If you
can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere.’ ”

That the man who takes God into honest, square partnership
cannot get into financial trouble, or any other very deep trouble,
is “Charlie” Page’s belief. A Bishop went to see him one time, they
tell you in Tulsa; the church needed money. Not much of “Char¬
lie” Page’s money goes into churches, I am told; they say he is a
little impatient with churches that arc in financial need; he cannot
understand it. The Bishop seated himself, at Page’s invitation,
but before the Bishop could say a word Page looked him square
in the eyes and said, simply:

“Bishop, do you tithe?”

The will of ALLEN F. BERLIN, state operator, who died at Slatington,
Pa., last week, was probated today. Part of the estate, valued at $250,000, was
left to charity under the following provisions:

“One-tenth of my estate I recognize as belonging to the Lord, to be given
to the most deserving charities, to be selected by the executors’ jury the first
year after my death.” — News Item.

638

IMPROVEMENT ERA

“Why, I give my entire time to the church,’’ was the answer.

“Yes, I know,’’ answered Page. “I understand that. But do
you tithe?’’

The Bishop admitted that he did not. The story in Tulsa goes
that the Bishop’s effort was not a success.

Mysticism or Superstition?

There are many men in business in America today who are
consistent tithers; you find them among both Jews and Gentiles.

You may call it mysticism, if you please, or even superstition,
but these men will tell you unashamedly that it pays to tithe.

“If it paid only in a financial way,’’ one of these men explained
to me, “tithing might not be so important. Almost any one can
make money who makes up his mind to do it, and is willing to
sacrifice for it. But it pays in a hundred other ways, in the feeling
you get, for instance, that you’re doing right, and that you’ve got
right on your side.’’

American business life is dotted with the romantic successes of
men who believe in tithing. Twenty-five years ago a business man
in a town in Kansas failed in business, with debts of more than
$100,000. Today he might be many times a millionaire, if he de¬
sired. He is the manufacturer of a lotion which is universally used.
He does not tell the story of his experiences in such a way that it
can be connected in the public mind with his famous product; where¬
fore, so far as this article is concerned, Americans will go on using
this lotion without knowing about this manufacturer’s partnership
with God.

Close friends know his story, and it runs like this;

When he was worse than bankrupt, he “opened his Bible at
Genesis 28:22 and, drawing a pencil mark around this twenty-
second verse, he said: ‘From this moment on as long as I live, of
all that God gives me I will give Him one-tenth.’ ’’

Not long after this he called on an old friend, a physician.
The physician had a recipe for a lotion which he presented to his
visitor. He suggested that it was so soothing a lotion and so bene¬
ficial that it ought to be put on the market.

Here is a statement from this man, the president of one of
America’s most successful manufacturing companies, written pur¬
posely for this article:

JAY COOKE (1821-1905), who founded the banking firm of Jay Cooke
Company in 1861, and was substantially the financier of the Union cause during
the Civil War, tithed in hard times and good, for he held firm to the mystical
belief that what he achieved was due to sharing his profits with God.

MEN WHO TITHE

639

“ ‘Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth,’ etc., and the
interview with the rich young ruler — these teachings gave me the
conviction some years ago that all of my income, except what the
family needs, was to be given for building up the kingdom of God.
1 have had more joy, I am sure, than I would have received from
becoming a millionaire.”

In these days when believers in odd doctrines obtain ready
hearing in the United States, it is not irrational to entertain the
statements of believers in the tithing system. Unlike believers in
most mystic doctrines, your convinced tither will show you mathe¬
matically that he has prospered financially as well as in other
directions.

A noted Southern lawyer recently announced to friends and
associates that some years before he had adopted the principle of
tithing. His motto was a verse from the Old Testament; ‘‘Thou
shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou
givest unto him; because that for this thing the Lord, thy God, shall
bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand
unto.” He announced his yearly earnings to show his experience.
In a certain year he made $3,900; the next year he made $5,303. 1 7 ;
the next year his earnings were $21 ,45 1.44; they more than doubled
(he ensuing year, when he earned $55,455.30. During the year that
be made his unusual announcement he earned $75,862.34.

In the Southwest there is a string of twenty-eight stores which
form a great monument to a business man who, through his busi¬
ness career, followed the practice of tithing. He explained once,
to friends, why he tithed.

‘‘Why, you and I tithe each other,” he said. ‘‘We would not
lend a neighbor money with which to run his business without inter¬
est. Neither would we expect him to lend us money without paying
interest. I found I was using God’s money and the business talents
He had given me without paying Him interest. That’s all I’ve done
in tithing — just met my interest obligations.”

There is a string of 500 chain stores, operated in almost as
many towns and cities in the United States, that is headed by a
business man who has tithed consistently. The founder of the busi¬
ness was a tither, and the president of the company who followed
him continued the practice. Ten years ago the sales of this com¬
pany were $2,500,000 a year. Last year they amounted to more
than $60,000,000.

Experience has taught me,” the president of this company told
me, ‘‘that the man prospers best who gives most freely of the bounty
that comes to him. The man who founded our company was an
example to all of us who grew up in the business with him. We all

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IMPROVEMENT ERA

believe that free giving is worth while in more ways than one. In
its turn it promotes prosperity which makes giving possible.”

Many American men and women wear gloves of a well-known
brand that are manufactured by a man who tithes.

Ask him why more and more of us wear his gloves every year,
and this manufacturer will smilingly tell you that he has reason to
believe that it is because, five years ago, he began to tithe.

‘‘The pastor of my church advocated tithing for its spiritual
benefits,” this manufacturer told me. ‘‘He also insisted that busi¬
ness men would find it a good investment. I tried it and I discovered
that he was right in both respects.

‘‘Giving away one-tenth of my income has never reduced my
net personal income below that of the previous year. And, what’s
more, our business is increasing steadily.”

In the glove trade it was estimated that the sales of this com¬
pany had increased almost 50 per cent in one year; its improvement
in business was one of the notable events of the trade in 1923.

One Man Out of Eight

Eight brothers, within recent years, have established a firm
which manufactures a certain food on most American tables. The
firm has become the largest of its kind in the world. Its sales last
year were made not only through the United States but also in
Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the product is now reaching a world
market. To many business men conversant with this particular line
of business the progress of this firm has been a mystery. Its pro¬
ducts seemed suddenly to become a household necessity.

I should violate a confidence if I were to name this firm and its
products: but one of the eight brothers, a vice-president of the
company, told me;

‘‘Up to the start of 1923 I had been making fairly liberal con¬
tributions to religious and charitable causes, but the amounts varied
so much every year that I wasn’t sure I was giving my share. So
I began to tithe in January, 1923. One of my brothers, who is
president of the company, has been a tither for many years. When
I saw him a few months ago, he told me that he had quit tithing
and was giving away 25 per cent of his income instead of 1 0 per cent.

‘‘If there’s any good luck in tithing — though I’m sure that
neither my brothers nor myself are thinking of luck, when we try
to do a little good with our money — our president and the rest of
my brothers haven’t any reason to dispute the statement. There are
eight of us brothers in the business, and we have seen it climb from
a small beginning to our present concern, which sold $40,000,000
worth of products throughout the entire world last year.

MEN WHO TITHE

641

“At a recent convention of our salesmen there was scarcely one
who did not report an increase in sales of at least 75 per cent for
1923, and most of them told us they were expecting a jump of
100 per cent in 1924.

“My one year’s trial, as a tither, in 1923, has convinced me,
first, that I did not give away enough money in previous years; and,
second, that even one-tenth may be too little.’’

It was a pleasant experience to meet this young business man.
He was smiling, happy, and extremely affable. In the great ware¬
house in New York — which is only one of the company’s branches
— he was surrounded by a large staff of office employees. It is his
particular job, according to arrangements among the eight brothers,
to ship products to the outside world. His firm today is exporting
to the world a product which, until within the last few years, was
imported into the United States; a product which, it was believed,
could be successfully manufactured only in foreign countries. There
was nothing that I could find in this atmosphere of assured success
and smoothly running progress to contradict the statement that tith¬
ing, among other things, brings prosperity and good fortune.

If this young man could not “dispute’’ that fact, neither could
1. Indeed, I must admit that contact and conversation with men
who believe in tithing is bound to have an impressive effect upon
one. Some time ago Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to explain to a
group of my friends in New York his interest in spiritism. Among
other things, he described a conversation which took place, in his
presence, between two men; he gathered from their conversation, he
told us, that they had both been aloft in their astral bodies and
had looked down upon the earth.

“And thus you see,’’ he concluded, “it is possible to believe
that there are groups of persons in this world who have discovered
the secret of spiritism.’’

In the same way I can say that I have discovered in American
business life — and any other person may make further discoveries
in this direction — groups of individuals who are firmly convinced
of the spiritual and material benefits of giving away one-tenth of
their incomes — if not more.

Those who have this belief do not hesitate to show you definite

The rigid precept of MATTHIAS BALDWIN, founder of the Baldwin
Locomotive Works, was to set apart one-tenth of all the earnings of his company
for the use of the Lord. In dark days, when his firm was struggling against terrible
financial difficulties, he continued to do so, pointing out to his associates that
this was their one safe investment.

642

IMPROVEMENT ERA

proof of its efficacy. This proof, as I have said, is usually very
material and soundly mathematical.

Tithing a Sound Business Investment

In New York City there is a merchant tailor with a large shop
in one of the high-rent buildings which hundreds of thousands of
persons pass daily; it is along one of the very congested pathways of
the city.

To this man his own success in business has only one explana¬
tion — his tithing. He spoke to me as frankly about it as he might
about any other business practice.

“Any man who plays fair with God,’’ he said, “is sure to
prosper. I started tithing when I got the idea some years ago that
all I had belonged to God, and that He was permitting me to use it.
I expected, of course, when I began to tithe, that my net income
would be reduced by 10 per cent. But this has never happened to
me. Each year’s net income has been larger in spite of tithing.

“When the lease on these quarters ran out a few years ago,
a great increase in rent was demanded. We have a very choice cor¬
ner in a very superior location, but it was hard to see how we could
make the payments. I talked the matter over with my wife, and we
both decided that, even if it became necessary to move, we would not
stop tithing. We signed the new lease, and at the end of the next
twelve months our net profits showed a fine increase.’’

“Talent loaned by God, time loaned by God, and money loaned
by God,’’ has been the working motto of one of the most noted
furnace manufacturers of the country.

He has a life of business achievement behind him, and he at¬
tributes it all to the fact that he has considered himself a steward of
divinely lent elements of success.

“I had to leave school when I was fourteen,’’ he explained to
me, “because of ill-health. I was the oldest of seven children. When
I was a boy the pastor of our church convinced me that everything
I had, or would have, in life would belong to God. As soon as I
understood this I began putting aside one-tenth of everything I
earned, every day, no matter how small it was. I went out into
life with empty pockets and willing hands and a firm belief in my
responsibility to God. God has more than kept His promise to me
financially and spiritually.’’

Ask this man for a formula for success in life and he will give
it readily: “Everything you have, even your time, is divinely lent
to you. If you accept it as a divine loan, you cannot fail.’’

Tithing During the Civil War

One of the greatest romances of tithing was called to my atten¬
tion by James L. Sayler, of Chicago.

MEN WHO TITHE

643

The financier for the Union cause in the Civil War was Jay
Cooke. There were times when it seemed almost impossible to secure
funds for the Union cause; Cooke, a financial genius, never failed
to find money in some way. He was the head of a manufacturing
lirm. He set aside one-tenth of his own earnings for religious and
charitable purposes, and, in addition to this, he insisted that one-
tenth of all the earnings of his firm should be set aside for the same
causes. He was firm in the mystical belief that his success in all the
efforts of his life, personal and patriotic, was due to his tithing.

There is a famous story about Matthias Baldwin, founder of
the great locomotive works. It was his practice to have one-tenth
of the earnings of the company set aside as tithes, to be used for
religious and educational purposes. A great deal of this money went
tor the education of Negroes.

There came a time when his firm encountered tremendous
financial difficulties. He insisted on continuing the tithing, in spite
of the lack of funds.

‘Why, that is our one safe investment,” he explained to his
associates.

His next payment of tithes was in the form of notes signed
by himself! And they were all paid.

Two large manufacturing concerns in the West are headed by
Thomas Kane, one of the most notable tithers in the United States.
He has spent, during the last forty years, many thousands of dollars
in trying to prove to his fellows the moral and material benefits of
tithing. His inquiry, sent out in the form of a pamphlet, has be¬
come famous wherever it has gone. It runs: ‘‘My personal belief is
that God honors, both temporally and spiritually, those who devote
one-tenth of their income to his cause. I have never known an ex¬
ception. Have you?” It is said that in forty years Mr. Kane, who
uses the nom de plume “Layman,” has never received an affirmative
answer to his query.

The Gospel of Tithing

The tithers are busy groups; they are not so difficult to dis¬
cover, working away in American life, as were Sir Arthur’s spiritists.
They have a mystic belief and they abide by it earnestly. They
press it. too, most earnestly upon those they encounter, for they seem
to feel that they have solved the mystery of the value of life and
work, and that all the world ought to know it.

In the world of tithers, where ‘‘Charlie” Page, the oil man, and
the rest of them live and work and succeed, the outsider can only
stand silent and wonder.

People believe many strange things these days. The world is
full of creeds and doctrines and mysteries.

644

IMPROVEMENT ERA

Who can take away the self-proved belief of the tithers? They
have the soundest arguments of all.

If you endeavor to explain their belief on the ground of psy¬
chology alone you run up against a stone wall.

“It is faith,’’ one eminent psychologist explained. “Faith
gives confidence.’’

Another said, “I will not attempt to explain the belief of
the tithers on materialistic grounds. No one can say that there is
not something mystic about their success. I am a Christian myself
and I believe that God takes care of his children.’’

The Psychologist’s Comment

Prof. Robert Sessions Woodworth, head of the department
of psychology at Columbia University, put the cold yardstick of
the science of psychology up against the belief — and the successes —
of the tithers. He said;

“The belief that their money was a loan from God, that they
were in partnership with him, would give these men who tithe more
confidence and self-reliance, would minimize all difficulties in their
eyes, and would, no doubt, go far toward bringing them success.

“On the other hand, they were evidently by nature men of
unusual energy and self-reliance. In the first place, had they not pos¬
sessed these qualities they would not have felt that they would dare
to begin tithing at a time when their resources were so limited. Men
of less natural energy, weak men, could have been influenced through
their reliance on such partnership with Omnipotence to relax their
own efforts and trust so far to divine aid that their business could
have failed instead of prospering.

“The fact that these men did have so much self-confidence
and energy raises the question whether their success was due to these
qualities mainly and whether they could not have succeeded eventu¬
ally without tithing.

“But, still, their belief, considered by itself, does present an
element of mysticism, and this belief was doubtless strengthened by
their putting it into action; had they merely entertained it as an
abstract conviction it would never have impressed them so deeply.

“In the case of the Oklahoma oil man, however, we must recog¬
nize a distinction. Finding profitable oil wells, so far as I know,
is largely a matter of chance. If that is the case, granted to the finder
a certain knowledge of geology, the finder’s natural energy and self-
reliance would be of relatively little importance.

“There are missing factors, of course, the absence of which
prevents our reaching an accurate conclusion. We should hear from
those oil men who did not tithe and did not share the tither’s belief

MEN WHO TITHE

645

as to divine partnership and who, nevertheless, were remarkably suc¬
cessful in striking oil; also, we should hear from sincere tithers, if
any, who sought for oil and usually missed it. And, as to business
men generally, we lack the testimony of the honest tithers who have
not prospered in a material way. In New England, where I was
reared, the ministers habitually advocated tithing as a duty. I have
no doubt that many persons of slender means were there induced
to adopt the practice and that not all of these persons attained ma¬
terial prosperity.

“But men are not inclined to talk about their failures. It is
practically impossible to supply these absent factors and hence any
precise solution of the problem — the effect of tithing on the tither —
can hardly be expected.’’

That’s the nearest I could come to securing from science an
explanation of the stories of success which smiling-faced business
men have laid before me within recent weeks.

I presented this explanation to a business man who tithes.

“Yes,” he said, “that sounds all right. But you know there
are other successes than money ones. I’ve got something more than
money out of tithing: it’s given me happiness and contentment that
I never could have bought. Suppose some of the New England
families who tithed did not succeed financially. Could science
measure the contentment which these families might have through
knowing that God was a partner in home affairs?”

Tithing means giving one-tenth of income.

Most of the business men mentioned in this article ceased “tith¬
ing” some time ago. Now they give far more than one-tenth.

“Tithing is the minimum that your Partner expects from you,”
said one eminently successful man. “That’s only good interest.
I’ve been trying to use half of my income in His affairs lately.
That’s full partnership.”

Foolish Things

When I think of all the foolish things
That happen in a day of mine. —

The blunders and mistakes I make,

The worries and the petty hurts
A tired heart can conjure up,

Like screeching devils from the fired sea, —
Beneath the jagged mass of them
I stagger, crushed and beaten.

Yet, when from all these foolish things

I take just one

That’s made an hour black.

Hold it before the golden sun

And watch the light

Make rainbows on its circled edge,

I see only

A thin-spun bubble, that will burst
Before it rises far.

SHIRLEY RE! GUDMUNDSEN

The Right Way of Tithing

By Albert R. Lyman

URELY for anything as important as paying tithing, there is
a right way and a wrong way. The right way proves to be
the easiest way, to most people it is the only possible way and
if they are too slow to find it they become discouraged and quit.

The right way of tithing is to pay it when it comes in, at
least to put it aside at that time for tithing, and to refrain from using
it in any other way. It should be paid at least once a month.

Tithing naturally becomes due on the earliest date after which •
it is in the hands of those who owe it, and the net gain should
then be ascertained and paid or set aside. Overdue tithing is in
a variety of dangers. In the first place, it is likely to be turned to
another purpose, and be difficult or impossible to find again for
payment. The tithing overdue for a long period is not likely to be
correctly remembered, and a dishonestly small amount made to
suffice.

One man who began paying promptly every month surprised
himself with the large amount he paid and the ease with which he
paid it. Delay of tithing, as of any other duty, is demoralizing, we
lose the spirit of it, we become dangerously selfish. After delaying
payment a long time, we have neither the habit nor the spirit of
paying. In many cases, the man who waits till the end of the year
to pay would not believe he owed so much even if he were told.
He has not provided himself with the due amount, and settles his
obligation to the Lord on a lower standard of honor than he prides
himself in maintaining in his dealings with men.

If we recognize the tithe as due when it comes into our hands,
it is easy to pay, much easier then than if we wait till it is larger.
Paying promptly forms the habit, brings the good spirit, and, being
up to date in our duty, we have a clear conscience, which we can
never enjoy while we are haunted with a sense of neglect.

Humility

Before honor goeth humility.

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth.

Pride goeth before destruction; and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and whosoever shall humble him¬
self shall be exalted.

Whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever
would be first among you shall be your servant.

The Necessity of Religious Training
in Modern Education

By James J. Davis, U. S. Secretary of Labor

Written especially for the Era, on invitation of George Albert Smith,
General Superintendent Y. M. M. I. A.

IT IS LESS than a century ago that the Christian world reached
the conviction that every child is entitled to an education. This
may be hard to believe, but it is literal fact. Not that the value
of an education was ever belittled by any intelligent person. The
idea that prevailed so long was that education was for the children
of the rich or aristocratic circles. Or it was for children of unusual
gifts. These have always been by far in the minority, which meant
that the vast majority of mankind never thought of education as we
all know it today. In fact, you do not have to go very far back in
history to find a time when few besides monks or Christian clergy¬
men were able to read and write. Charlemagne himself was only
learning his letters late in life. Kings themselves scorned such
knowledge as beneath them. It is easy to imagine what society was
like in such dark ages.

Today education is part of the democratic ideal. We Amer¬
icans no more think of depriving a child of his education than we
think of depriving a citizen of his right to the ballot. We have only
to make sure that we are putting the principle to the best practical
use and in the best practical manner. And we have good reason to
question how well we are doing this. During the Great War it
was revealed to us in the army tests that we are not so well edu¬
cated as we thought we were. Great numbers of drafted men were
found unable to read or write. A discouraging number were found
to be of feeble mentality and unfit for any education at all.

Yet, seeing to it that our children are able to read, write, and
possess a fair knowledge of mathematics, geography and the other
elementary studies, is not enough. Education should instruct our
children in the art of living life. They should be taught facts, but
they should be built into well-rounded personalities. We must teach
the heart, as well as the head and hand.

Even today we are not quite satisfied as to what constitutes a
real education. In some schools our children are crammed with facts.
But the possession of all the facts in the world does not bring sense

648

IMPROVEMENT ERA

and judgment. It is easy for a man to know everything and still
possess no understanding of anything. You may teach a boy half
a dozen languages, and yet not teach him to talk sense in any one
of them. Not long ago I met a man who had fluent command of
four or five languages, yet he had no occupation, and despaired
of ever finding one. In a sense, he was an educated person, yet he
was at a total loss as to how to take hold of life and put himself
to use. Always and everlastingly our system of education must be
aimed to awaken the inner being in every boy or girl, so that they
learn only to be aroused to the creation of ideas of their own. In a
word, the thing is not to fill them full of information, but to make
them think for themselves.

“All education should be moral first; intellectual secondarily”
— so said John Ruskin. What he meant was that education needs to
be based on the moral or religious sense. It is not enough to be
educated and to have original ideas; those ideas and that teaching
must be used for a good and moral purpose. And by moral purpose
we mean no narrow fanaticism but a breadth that includes all hu¬
manity. A man may profess the most devout belief in a Deity,
and yet live in a way to falsify his profession. On the other hand, a
man may venture no opinions and beliefs as to where he stands in
relation to God, and still live a perfectly upright life. In one sense,
the man who professes one way and lives another way is immoral;
whereas, the man who professes no beliefs but lives in an upright
manner is moral. I have known many men who pretended to treat
religion lightly, who yet were deeply religious. The point I am
aiming at is that no man can live a truly moral life without proving
the existence in himself of a religious nature, no matter what he
does or does not profess. So it is that we cannot teach our children
right behavior without waking in them the religious sense. By that
I mean that teaching the upright life is the simplest way of getting
religion into education.

But with religion in education, our teaching is built on a solid
rock. Without religion, as evoked by sound moral training, all
education is built on the sand.

I am just as strong for the teaching of science, for science can
never truly conflict with religion. TTe more we know of the won¬
ders of the universe, the more we must marvel at the God who created
it. Does science prove that religion is false? By no means. The
science that deserves the name of science can only report on what
it discovers in Nature. It can thus only make Nature more wonder¬
ful and awe-inspiring. Men ask about the mystery of life, but
science can never answer this question. The scientist may split
matter into molecules, atoms and electrons, but he gets no nearer

THE NECESSITY OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING

649

than he was before to the mystery of life. He only gets nearer
to the Great Cause that has brought into being the material things
about us. Ask a scientist, “What is life?’’ and he is as much at a
loss as a savage. The divine spark that has animated clay and made
it a man remains today the mystery it ever was. We know a little
more about the mystery, and the mystery itself is more wonderful
and mysterious than ever; that is all. But just because science does
arouse this wonder as to what we are and why we are here, it quickens
the religious spirit. So, I say, let us teach science, for the wonder,
the religious awe, it awakens within us.

As a matter of fact, science itself is today becoming less and less
materialistic. It has split the molecule into atoms, and the atoms
into particles of electricity. Yet, there is not a scientist able to
explain the nature of electricity. He has simply seen the solid matter
dissolve into particles of force. In a nutshell, we cannot see deeply
into the material objects about us without running straight into
God. The more we know about matter the more we are whisked
off the earth into the realm of spirit. Every day we use electricity
to do every conceivable “material” thing for us; but what this elec¬
tricity itself is, we do not know, except that it is another of God’s
wonders.

Having children of my own, I want them to be men and
women convinced that religion is not a special subject for thought
on a single day of the week. I want them schooled in the wonders
of this world so that they see a religious significance in everything
about them. That is the sort of education I believe in, and the sort
of religious training I think should be a part of that education. If
our world were a toy blown about by blind forces, with no plan,
no direction guiding its course, I believe we should all go mad.
What would be the use of life if, after our little span, we were to
lie down to an eternal and dreamless sleep? No, all the inspiration
we have to live comes from the conviction that we are here for a
purpose. And education should teach us to discover that high pur¬
pose, and live up to it. That is the morality, the religion, I want
to see introduced in our educational system.

No nation whose people lacked all religious faith, all moral
purpose, ever throve and prospered. We hear much today of
“pagan” peoples. It is all a mistake. The so-called pagan peoples
were not irreligious. It is our habit to think of the Greeks and
Romans as pagans. But they had their deeply religious beliefs, and
never profaned those beliefs or denied their gods. We do not now
accept the gods they worshiped so devoutly, and there is a point we
should take to heart. The point is that those people were religious.
They taught love of their gods and obedience to divine command to

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IMPROVEMENT ERA

rhe children in their schools. Today we should recognize the fact
that the religious feeling can exist in many forms. We do not today
worship the gods worshiped by the ancients. But we still have
many different ways of worshiping Deity, and while each of us
should preserve his own mode of worship, he should respect the
other man's religious beliefs and habits. Tolerance should be a part
of every man’s religion, and tolerance should be a part of every
man’s education.

Our forefathers are thought to have been sterner people than
we are — people more narrow and bigoted. It is true they may have
had a narrower view of life, because they lacked our modern knowl¬
edge of life. But I believe sometimes they had a deeper knowledge
of the purpose of life. Today too many of our children come forth
from school with the wrong teaching. We send them forth be¬
wildered, uncertain as to whether or not it is a superstition that we
have such a thing as a soul. We leave them equally uncertain as
to how to regard the Bible. They desire to appear “modern,”
and think that to be modern and sophisticated they must deny all the
simple old teachings. But if civilization is to live and be passed on
to our successors, we must be all the more sure we teach our chil¬
dren that all the old so-called platitudes are true. We must teach
them that the first of those old truths is that life must be lived
nobly in the sight of God and our fellow-beings. It is always true
that we need to be kind and good to one another. That, too, is
only another expression of the religious spirit in us.

What really is morality? My answer is, it is the science of
acting nobly and with decency toward one another. You might put
that principle of morality into any system of clauses you please, but
the form would mean little so long as the central principle remained
the same — the principle of kindness to others. The teachings of any
form of religion should put its believers into harmony with God.
Just so, the methods of education should awaken in our children that
moral and religious sense without which any nation must die.

Let us fill our boys and girls with a love of beauty and a
desire to find it and live it. What is morality but fineness and beauty
of conduct? Yet even this is not all. It is not enough to win the
approval of your fellow-beings. For peace of his soul, a man must
have the approval of his God. Let us have the moral training that
will give us the approval of our fellow-beings. Let us have the
religious training that will give us God’s blessing.

Brigham Young as Seen in 1860

By Preston Nibley

Towards the dose of day, on August 25, 1860, there might
have been seen, emerging from the mouth of Emigration
canyon and following the dusty road across the bench into
Salt Lake City, the Overland Stage, completing the last few miles
of its long and arduous trip across the plains from its starting point at
St. Joseph, Missouri. By frequent change of horses, and by pur¬
suing the journey from early morning until late at night, this par¬
ticular stage had completed 1,136 miles in nineteen days.

Among the weary passengers who glanced eagerly ahead for a
first view of the “City of the Saints,’’ was one Richard F. Burton,
39 years of age, captain in the English Army, fellow and gold
medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, and one of the most
renowned travelers of his day. The first Englishman to make the
pilgrimage to Mecca, the first to penetrate the lake regions of Cen¬
tral Africa, he had now arrived in Salt Lake valley, to see and
write a book about “the ‘Mormons,’ and their Kingdom.’’

As I write I have this volume before me, a book of more than
five hundred pages, written in a hasty, rather careless manner, and
filled with many ill-timed personal comments, but a true book
withal, and, I think, the very best account of Salt Lake City we have
from a non-“Mormon’’ in those early days.

More than sixty-seven years have passed since Captain Burton
rode into town on that August afternoon, and a second generation
has come on the scene, to whom those early days are, we might say,
lost and unknown. It might not be amiss, therefore, to pause for
a moment and glance back at the life of our people as Captain Burton
saw it, making due allowance always that he did not and could not
see truly into conditions as we know them to have been. There
were many plans formulated and executed in this valley in 1860,
by President Brigham Young and his associates, of which Captain
Burton never dreamed. The eye of the traveler could see, and the
hand could record, but the heart and the mind could not understand.
What burned in the souls of the pioneers as they trudged wearily
into this valley, and sought to establish themselves here? Who can
describe it?

But to our story — relating the events of his entrance into the
valley on that August afternoon. Captain Burton writes:

"In due time, emerging from the gates and portal and deep serrations of the upper
course, we descended into a lower level. Emigration Canyon gradually bulges out

"The Prophet’s Block,” Salt Lake City
As viewed in September, 1860

and its steep slopes of grass and fern, shrubbery and stunted brush, fall imperceptibly
into the plain. The valley presently lay full before our sight. * * *

lime and the beautiful were present in contrast. Switzerland and Italy lay side by side.
* * * 'X'jie hour was about 6 p. m.; the atmosphere was touched with a dreamy

haze, as it generally is in the vicinity of the lake; a little bank of rose-colored clouds,
edged with flames of purple and gold, floated in the upper air, while the mellow
radiance of an American autumn, that bright interlude between the extremes of heat
and cold, diffused its mild, soft lustre over the face of earth.”

There is a picture of our beautiful valley that has hardly been
excelled to this day. And again:

“In some parts, the valley was green: in others, where the hot sun shot its
oblique beams, it was of a tawny yellowish-red, like the sands of the Arabian
desert, with scatters of trees, where the Jordan of the West rolls its opaline waves through
pasture lands of dried grass dotted with flocks and herds, and fields of ripening yellow
corn. Everything bears the impress of handiwork, from the bleak benches behind
to what was once a barren valley in front. Truly the ‘Mormon’ prophecy has been
fulfilled: already the howling wilderness^ — in which twelve years ago a few miserable
savages, the half-naked Digger Indians, gathered their grass seed, grasshoppers, and
black crickets to keep life and soul together, and awoke with their war cries the echo
of the mountains; and the bear, the wolf and the fox prowled over the site of a
now populous city — has blossomed like the rose.”

Jogging along in the rolling and jolting stage, our captain soon
had his first vie'w of the city, -which he estimated to have a popula¬
tion of “between nine and twelve thousand souls.”

“The city revealed itself as we approached, from behind its screen, the inclined
terraces of the upper table-land, and at last it lay stretched before us as upon a map.

BRIGHAM YOUNG AS SEEN IN 1860

653

At a little distance the aspect was somewhat Oriental. None of the buildings except
the Prophet’s house were whitewashed. The material — the thick, sun-dried adobe,
common to all parts of the Eastern world, — was of a dull leaden blue, deepened by
the atmosphere to a gray, like the shingles of the roofs. The numbers of gardens and
compounds, the dark clumps and lines of bitter cottonwood, locust or acacia, poplars
and fruit trees, apples, peaches and vines — how lovely they appeared after the baldness
of the prairies! — and finally the fields of long-eared maize and sweet sorghum strength¬
ened the similarity to an Asiatic rather than to an American settlement. The differ¬
ences presently became as salient. The farm houses with their stacks and stock strongly
suggested the Old Country. Moreover, domes and minarets — even churches and steeples
— were wholly wanting, an omission that somewhat surprised me. The only build¬
ing conspicuous from afar was the block occupied by the present head of the Church.
The courthouse, with its tinned Muscovian dome, at the west end of the city: the
arsenal, a barn-like structure on a bench below Ensign Peak, and a saw-mill built
beyond the southern boundary, were the next in importance.”

So much then for the first impressions of our alert and in¬
quisitive captain. As the stage descended the last hill and rolled
into the city there is this, which one might reasonably expect, “I
looked in vain for the out-house harems, in which certain romances
concerning things ‘Mormons’ had informed me that wives are kept,
like any other stock.” No, my good friends, wives were not kept
in that fashion, as you will soon learn. ‘‘I presently found this
but one of a multitude of delusions. Upon the whole, the ‘Mor¬
mon’ settlement was a vast improvement upon its contemporaries
in the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri.”

Turning suddenly to the right, the stage entered ‘‘the main
thoroughfare, the center of population,” and drew up before a hotel,
the ‘‘only establishment of the kind in New Zion,” the Salt Lake
House, ‘‘a two-storied, pent-roofed building,” where our captain
was to make his headquarters during his twenty-four-day visit in
the city. The hotel he found to be comfortable and convenient
‘‘despite the closeness of the atmosphere,” the swarms of ‘‘emi¬
gration flies,” and a certain ‘‘populousness of bedstead.”

So then, the traveling captain is at last set down in Salt Lake
City, the place which he has come so far to see, and from which
wild and speculative rumors have gone around the world. On the
morrow he will walk about a little and try to get a look at these
“Mormons” and what they have accomplished. Perhaps, too, if he
is lucky, he will get an interview with “Mr. Brigham Young”. It
is this man, more than all others, about whom he is curious.
Bright and early the following morning he began to walk about the
city.

"I was surprised to find that every meridinal street is traversed on both sides
by a streamlet of limpid water — supplied from City Creek, Red Butte and other canyons
lying north and east of the settlement.” Main street, he observed, was 132 feet wide,
"including the sidewalks, which are each twenty, and like the rest of the principal
avenues is planted with locust and other trees.”

654

IMPROVEMENT ERA

On the temple block Captain Burton was disappointed in
finding that the temple was only “a hole in the ground,” and he
doubted that it would ever be completed. Little did this man
realize the hardships of our people in locating in this valley, and the
long years of sacrifice and patient toil it took to erect the mag¬
nificent “Mormon” temple. To our visitor the task looked hopeless.

The afternoon he spent with Governor and Mrs. Alfred Gum¬
ming, at their commodious house on North Temple street. One
would like to know the conversation that went on between these
two gentlemen regarding President Young and our people. There
is not much said, except in praise of Governor Cumming’s “scrupu¬
lous and conscientious impartiality,” and his resolution to treat
Saints and Gentiles alike.

Monday morning, in company with Elder T. B. Stenhouse,
the captain started out for what is now Fort Douglas reserve, to
witness the arrival of a group of hand-cart pioneers. He graphically
describes the event as follows;

‘‘As we issued from the city we saw the smoke-like column which announced
the emigrants were crossing the bench land; and people were hurrying from all sides
to greet and get news of friends. Presently the carts came. All the new arrivals were
in clean clothes, the men washed and shaved, and the girls, who were singing hymns,
habited in Sunday dresses. The company was sunburned, but looked well and
thoroughly happy, and few, except the very young and the very old, who suffer most
on such journeys, troubled the wains.”

Mingling in the crowds as the new-comers were greeted by
their friends. Captain Burton comments on the dress of the women;
“A sun-bonnet is here universally used, with the difference how¬
ever, that the ‘Mormons’ provide it with a long, thick veil behind,
which acts like a cape or shawl.” And then there is this very pretty
compliment; “I could not but observe in those born hereabouts
the noble, regular features, the lofty, thoughtful brow, the clear,
transparent complexion, the long, silky hair, and, greatest charm of
all, the soft smile of the American woman when she does smile.”

During the afternoon a visit was made to City Creek, or
“Northern Kanyon,” as our author calls it, also, to the “Thermal
Springs,” north of the city, which have come down in history as the
“Warm Springs.”

And now, as the fifth day of Captain Burton’s visit to Salt
Lake rolled around, there came this little note to Governor Alfred
Gumming in response to one of his own requesting that he might
call on President Brigham Young and bring with him the distin¬
guished visitor;

Great Salt Lake City, Aug. 30, 1860.

Governor A. Gumming,

Sir: In reply to your note of the 29th inst., I embrace the earliest opportunity

The Salt Lake House

Where Captain Burton stayed while visiting in the "City of the Saints," September, 1860

since my return to inform you that it will be agreeable to me to meet the gentle¬
man you mention in my office at 11 a. m., tomorrow, the 31st.

Brigham Young.

The day following, Captain Burton and Governor Gumming
were promptly on hand, and we can thank the Captain for this
most excellent look at President Young. He is here in life to us, our
great President, — Utah's most distinguished man. I am inclined to
think that the portrait is as clear as the Captain could make it:

“I met Governor Gumming in Main street, and we proceeded together to our
visit. After a slight scrutiny, we passed the guard — which is dressed in plain clothes,
and to the eye unarmed — and walking down the veranda, entered the Prophet’s private
office. Several people who were sitting there rose at Mr. Cumm^ng’s entrace. At a
few words of introduction, Mr. Brigham Young advanced, shook hands with complete
simplicity of manner, asked me to be seated on a sofa at one side of the room, and
presented me to those present. * ♦ *

“The Prophet was born at Whittingham, Vermont, on the 1st day of June, 1801 ;
he was consequently, in 1860, fifty-nine years of age; he looks about forty-five. I had
expected to see a venerable looking old man. Scarcely a gray thread appears in his
hair, which is parted on the side, light colored, rather thick, and reaches below the
ears with a half curl. He formerly wore it long, after the western style; now it
is cut level with the ear lobes. * ♦ + The eyes are between gray and blue, with
a calm, composed, and somewhat reserved expression: a slight droop in the left lid
made me think he had suffered from paralysis; I afterwards heard that the ptosis
is the result of neuralgia which has long tormented him. For this reason he usually
covers his head, except in his own house or in the Tabernacle. * * * The nose,

which is fine and somewhat sharply pointed, is bent a little to the left. The lips are
close, like the New Englander’s, and the teeth, especially those of the under jaw,
are imperfect. The cheeks are rather fleshy, and the line between the alae of the nose
and the mouth is broken; the chin is somewhat peaked, and the face clean shaven.

656

IMPROVEMENT ERA

except under the jaws, where the beard is allowed to grow. The hands are well made,
and not disfigured by rings. The figure is large, broad-shouldered, and stooping
a little when standing.

“The Prophet’s dress was neat and plain as a Quakers, all gray homespun, except
the cravat and waistcoat. His coat was of antique cut, and, like the pantaloons, baggy,
and the buttons were black. A neck-tie of dark silk, with a large bow, was loosely
passed around a starchless collar, which turned down of its own accord. The waist¬
coat was of black satin — once an article of almost national dress — single-breasted, and
buttoned nearly to the neck, and a plain gold chain was passed into the pocket. The
boots were Wellingtons, apparently of American make.”

That constitutes the appearance of President Brigham Young
to Captain Burton’s eye. Again we thank him for having left this
portrait to us. Nothing can be of greater interest in early Utah
history than the doings, sayings and appearance of this great man,
the chief character in it. There are a few things here mentioned
especially worthy of note; that clear, steady eye of his, and calm
expression of face; the “close” lips. Not a darting, quick-glancing
eye, but used to fixed, steady gaze, piercing past the appearance
and into the soul of things. The calm, composed expression of the
face, indicating that this man was well acquainted with the battle
of life, its defeats and its victories, and that he trusted completely
in his Maker that the ultimate outcome would be right. The “close”
lips, showing determination — -to continue doing his duty to the
last breath of his life.

Continuing, Captain Burton comments:

"Altogether the Prophet’s appearance was that of a gentleman farmer in New
England. * * * He is a well preserved man. * * * manner is at once

affable and impressive, simple and courteous. * * * He shows no signs of dog¬

matism, bigotry, or fanaticism, and never once entered — with me at least — on the
subject of religion. * * * He impresses the stranger with a certain sense of
power. * ♦ * pjig temper is even and placid. * * * j-jfg powers of ob¬
servation are intuitively strong, and his friends declare him to be gifted with an
excellent memory, and a perfect judgment of character. * * * His life is ascetic.

His favorite food is baked potatoes with a little buttermilk, and his drink, water.
’* * * Finally, there is a total absence of pretension in his manner, and he has

been so long used to power that he cares nothing for its display.”

Here we take leave of “Brother Brigham” as he stood before
the world on August 31,1 860. It will do us good to return to him,
time and again.

Leaving the President’s office and walking toward Main street.
Captain Burton noted:

"On the extreme west of this block, backed by a pound for estrays, which is no
longer used, lies the Tithing House and Deseret Store, a long, narrow, upper-storied
building, with cellars, store-rooms, receiving rooms, pay rooms and writing offices. At
this time of the year it chiefly contains linseed and rags for paper making: after the
harvest it is well stuffed with grains and cereals, which are taken instead of money
payment.”

And now there is one item that has more than particular interest

BRIGHAM YOUNG AS SEEN IN 1860

657

to me and which I trust I may be pardoned for including in this
account. The Captain 'remarks that on the evening of the third of
September, “while sauntering about the square,” he became interested
“in a train of twenty-three wagons which had just bivouacked.”
These were immigrants under the command of Captain Charles E.
Ross, and they had just arrived in the valley that day. Playing
about one of the wagons, or perhaps climbing in and out of it, re¬
joicing with the others at the termination of the long journey, and
looking with wonderment at the strange scenes about him, clad only
in a shirt and pair of trousers, which his mother had made him out
of an old tent, was a little barefoot lad, eleven years of age. It was
my honored father. President Charles W. Nibley, who, with his
poor emigrant parents, brothers and sisters, had traveled all the way
from Scotland to this New Zion in the wilderness. What the family
possessed, with the exception of their oxen, was in their prairie
wagon. The father had been a coal miner and had saved for years
to obtain means sufficient for the long journey. Now they had
arrived in the valley and their lot was to be cast with the Saints.
They thought their difficulties were over, but, as subsequent events
proved, they were only just beginning.

On the same day. Captain Burton made a trip to Sugar House
with “Mr. John Taylor.”

"He pointed out to me on the left the mouths of the several canyons, and in¬
formed me that the City Creek and Red Butte on the northeast, and the Emigration.
Parley’s, Mill Creek, Great Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons to the east and
southeast, all head together in two points, thus enabling troops and provisions to be
easily and readily concentrated for the defense of the eastern approaches. When talking
about the probability of gold digging being developed near Great Salt Lake City, he
said that the ‘Mormons’ are aware of that, but that they look upon agriculture as
their real wealth.

"Returning, we visited the garden of Apostle Woodruff, who introduced us to
his wife, and showed us work of which he had reason to be proud. Despite the hard,
ungrateful soil which had required irrigation for the last ten years, there were apricots
from Malta, the Hooker strawberries, here worth $5 the plant, plum trees from Kew
Gardens, French and California grapes, wild plum and buffalo berry, currants, peaches
and apples: — with which last we were hospitably loaded in numbers.’’

From the 3rd until the 19th of September, Captain Burton
made side trips to Brighton, in Big Cottonwood canyon. Camp
Floyd in Cedar valley, and to Black Rock where he enjoyed a swim
in the lake. On the 20th he climbed into a “buck-board” and, ac¬
companied by “Judge Flennikin, who had been transferred to Carson
valley,” set out overland for California. “The day was fine and
wondrous clear, affording us a splendid back view of the happy
valley, before it was finally shut out from sight, and the Utah Lake
looked a very gem of beauty, a diamond in its setting of steely blue
mountains.”

Church Founded Upon Revelation*

By President Charles W. Nibley

I THINK, my brethren and sisters, that we are to be congratulated
on this blessed Sabbath Easter morn in having the great privi¬
lege and honor, as servants of the Lord in his Church, to meet
together under so favorable circumstances, knowing that the work
of the Lord is spreading, increasing and becoming a great power for
righteousness and for the well-being of mankind in the world.

I 'am mindful that I am a member of this Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints: that my parents heard the word gladly
from the elders who were delivering the message of “Mormonism” ;
that they received and accepted it with full purpose of heart, and that
they remained faithful and devoted to the end. I am proud of this
organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
great American Church, the Church that had its birth in the land
of freedom, where men’s minds were permitted to expand, to de¬
bate, to question, to tell their thoughts without let or hindrance,
and not where the mind of man, as in some of the older countries,
had for ages been so scribbed, cabined and confined that it was not
safe to advance thought or to express opinion freely and frankly.
We are proud that the Church is American-born and does not have
to receive any instructions or orders from any foreign power or
potentate whatsoever.

“Freedom and reason make us men:

Take these away, what are we then?

Mere animals, and just as well

The beasts may think of heaven or hell.”

We live in a land of freedom, a land of liberty, a glorious land.
And in these last days the Lord has established his Church upon the
earth for the last time.

Many Signs of the Times

How do we know they are the last days? There are many signs
of the times by which we may know of this fact. I haven’t time to
go into all that fully, but just hastily call your attention to the
prophecy of Daniel, twelfth chapter, fourth verse. Speaking of the
time of the end, he said, “Go thy way for many shall run to and
fro and knowledge shall be increased.’’ Now imagine what there

♦Address delivered at the ninety-eighth annual conference of the Church. Salt Lake
Tabernacle. April 8, 1928.

CHURCH FOUNDED UPON REVELATION

659

was in the way of running to and fro in his day, and all the succeed¬
ing centuries down to the last one hundred years when the revelation
from Almighty God came to the Prophet Joseph Smith. There were
not many running to and fro in the earth in those days. Now, in
contrast, how many run to and fro on the earth, on the sea, under
the sea, and in a couple of months from now probably half of the
United States of America will be on wheels, running to and fro all
over the country. What a change, what a marvelous change from
the slow old movement of even a hundred years ago or less.

Then again, knowledge, he said, would be increased. How
wonderfully has that been fulfilled. It was to be increased in the
latter times, as distinctive from the former times. We have books
by the millions, newspapers, periodicals, magazines, knowledge on
every hand. Then look in the last one hundred years, or one hun¬
dred eight years, since the first revelation, the great revelation and
manifestation came to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Even the railroad
was not in existence in 1820. From that time on, how knowledge
has been increased on every hand! Inventions by the tens of thou¬
sands, going on and on, until we have the marvelous and wonderful
radio — my voice going out now on the air. It goes around the
world seven times in a second! So that people in any part of the
United States who are within hearing distance of this ether wave,
as we call it, will hear my voice as instantly as you hear it in this
building. A marvelous and wonderful invention! It is not because
the mind of man is more acute in this age than in any former age,
for the scientists all agree that the mind of man was quite as acute in
the days of Abraham and in the days while the Savior was upon
the earth as it is now. But those were not the days and times men¬
tioned in the scriptures, which were called the last days and the
fulness of times.

Through the Spirit of the Lord

The Lord, through Joel, the prophet, said: “I will pour out
my spirit upon all flesh.” The Lord has poured out his spirit upon
the people everywhere. And his spirit is intelligence. ‘‘The glory
of God is intelligence.” And man. even an unbeliever, whose mind
is operated upon to invent this or the other for the benefit of man¬
kind is acted upon by that intelligent influence which we name the
Spirit of the Lord, whether it is an Edison or any other man. All
intelligence comes from God. In other words, light and truth, as
our scriptures say. So that these inventions, which have been multi¬
plied in a most marvelous manner, have been brought about through
the operation of the spirit of the Lord.

In the 14th chapter of the Revelation of St. John, we read

660

IMPROVEMENT ERA

of the coming of this latter-day work by the hands of an angelic
messenger. John the apostle, the beloved, banished on the Isle
of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus, was then the only one re¬
maining upon the earth, the other disciples by this time having
gone to the great beyond. The angel of the Lord told him; “Come
up and I will show you things that must come to pass hereafter.”
What did the angel show him? Marvelous things. Among them
was this, which was to come to pass after that time;

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people,

“Saying with a loud voice. Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his
judgment is come.”

This was to be in the hour of God’s judgment^ — drawing near
to the end, you see — in the days spoken of by Joel and Daniel, when
knowledge should run to and fro. In other words, in the last days — ■
the set time in which all things are to be consummated.

This Church Stands Alone

In 1820 there was no divinely organized Church of Jesus
Christ, with power and authority of the Priesthood, on this earth.
The organization of the Church did not take effect till ten years later
— April 6, 1830. From the time of John the Revclator up to
1820, we affirm, we make the positive declaration, we are convinced
in our hearts and souls, for we have had it revealed unto us by the
power of the Holy Ghost, there was no organized Church of Jesus
Christ upon the earth, with the authority of the Priesthood to take a
man down into the water and baptize him, that his sins might be
remitted, or to lay hands Upon his head and confirm him a member,
and confer upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost. So that this Church
stands alone with respect to that.

We have no contention against any church or any people.
There are many, many thousands of good people in the world, mil¬
lions of them, indeed, who are faithful believers in their own way.
But the Church of Christ as an organization — -something through
which the Lord operates, by his power and spirit — did not exist until
this Church was organized. So that we may say that any other
church claiming that authority, claiming the authority to bind on
earth as it is bound in heaven, is not recognized by the Lord, for
he himself has declared that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints is “the only true and living Church upon the face of
the whole earth.”

Not Founded on Men

I know it is claimed that there has been direct succession from

CHURCH FOUNDED UPON REVELATION

661

Peter, the great apostle — Peter, the president of the Twelve, the head,
the leader, than whom, in many respects, there was no greater apostle.
We honor him. The latchet of his shoes, I would say, I am un¬
worthy to unloose. But he was human. This Church is not built
upon Peter. It is not the Church of Joseph Smith, nor the Church
of Brigham Young, nor the Church of President Grant. It is not
founded on men. It was founded by direct revelation from heaven.
Let me read what the Lord said with respect to this:

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Phillipi, he asked his disciples,
saying. Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?

“And they said. Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some. Elias: and others,
Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.

“And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

“And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

What rock? The rock of revelation; for flesh and blood had
not told Peter, but it had been revealed to him that Jesus was the
Christ.

“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:”

Of course he did. He was the proper man to give them to,
the President of the Twelve.

"And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what¬
soever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

“Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus
the Christ.

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must
go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”

The Human Peter

Now right here Peter, the human being, on whom was con¬
ferred this great authority, just as today, by divine appointment,
is conferred that same power on President Heber J. Grant, the pres¬
ident of this Church, a human being like you and me, and like Peter
— right at this point I read:

“Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him [Peter the human being, under¬
taking to rebuke the Savior], saying. Be it far from thee. Lord: this shall not be
unto thee.”

We will not allow these men to take you and kill you — no sir.
What was the answer of the Savior?

662

IMPROVEMENT ERA

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an
offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be
of men.” (Matt. 16:13-23.)

That was the human Peter, as all men are human. Joseph
Smith, great as he was, the forerunner, the man chosen probably
before the foundations of this earth were laid to usher in the
great and last dispensation of the fulness of times, was human. He
was Joseph Smith; he was not God. This Church is not founded on
him any more than on Peter, to whom the Savior had to say: “Get
thee behind me, Satan.” You don’t know what you are talking
about, Peter.

So I repeat that the rock upon which this Church is founded is
the rock of revelation. What is revelation? If you will turn in
your Doctrine and Covenants to the eighth section, you will find
this definition of revelation. The Lord speaks to Joseph Smith and
Oliver Cowdery :

The Spirit of Revelation

“Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost,
which shall come unto you and which shall dwell in your heart.

“Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation;

“Behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through
the Red Sea on dry ground.”

Do we have revelations today? Is President Grant guided by
revelation? Certainly, just in that kind of a way, ready to receive
the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord as they shall be given
by the power of the Holy Ghost. Have we the same power and the
same opportunity to receive the spirit of revelation? Certainly we
have. Why, every member of this Church, every last one who is
living as he should, keeping the commandments of God, receives that
testimony, and is thereby founded upon that rock which flesh and
blood hath not delivered unto them but which our Father in heaven
has revealed unto them. And upon this rock he builds his Church.

There isn’t time to go into further discussion of this matter. I
will have to hurry, but I want to read what St. Paul said in respect
t9 the resurrection of Christ, and I think it fits me and fits every
member of the priesthood, in going out to proclaim the gospel, to
stick just to the one great text. St. Paul said to the Corinthians,
second chapter.

What Paul Said

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech.”

We are not depending so much on that, though we are glad to
hear “excellency of speech”: yes, even Paul the learned said:

CHURCH FOUNDED UPON REVELATION

663

■'When I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God.

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.

"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom,
but in demonstration of the spirit and of power:

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of
God.”

That is “Mormonism”. Stick to the one message — Jesus Christ
and him crucified; Joseph Smith receiving the everlasting gospel from
angelic beings, as John on the Isle of Patmos declared, coming at
the time of the end when all these things are being fulfilled.

Just one other citation that I want to give you and then I am
through. In the Book of Mormon we have a prophecy of the time
of the end. You will find it in the 14th chapter of First Nephi.
1 haven’t the time to read the whole chapter;

"And it came to pass that when the angel had spoken these words, he said unto
me: Rememberest thou the covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel?”

The covenants that had been made to Abraham, not yet ful¬
filled, but in the way of fulfillment. The time is here, the coven¬
ants are being fulfilled. General Allenby, in the World War, marched
into Palestine and freed that country from its oppressors, and since
that work has been going on. That is what the angel a thousand
years ago asked Nephi in that question:

"Rememberest thou the covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel? I said
unto him. Yea.

"And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold that great and
abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose foundation is the’
devil.”

I skip now some verses to hurry on.

"And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon
the great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars
among all the nations and kindreds of the earth.”

The First World War

Let me call your attention to this fact, that until the World
War, all the nations and kindreds of the earth had never been in¬
volved in one great war before.

When Columbus discovered America, he found the new world,
so that prior to that time all the nations and all the kindreds of the
earth could not be involved in war together. Since 1492 we have
the most accurate history of all the wars, and all the nations and
kindreds of the earth were for the first time involved in this great
struggle. ,

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1 rvIPROVEMENT ERA

"And as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which
belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold, the
wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold, thou seest all these things —
“And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother
of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose foundation
is the devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing
the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who
are of the house of Israel.”

Now the question will come; Define that Church. What
Church is it? The Lord defines it, you can tell. Find any church
that is great, that is abominable, whose foundation is the devil, and
upon which the wrath of God is poured out in the last days, and
then you have it. I can’t define it any other way.

The Lord help us to know, by the power of revelation, that
this is his Church, that it is not founded upon Peter or Paul or Joseph
or Heber or any other human being, but only upon the power and
authority of the living God, and upon the solid rock of revelation
from Almighty God. Amen.

Honored Laborers

"TWO MEN I HONOR, AND NO THIRD. First, the toil worn Craftsman that
with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and makes her man’s. Ven¬
erable to me is the hard Hand; crooked, coarse; wherein notwithstanding lies a cunning
virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the Scepter of this Planet. Venerable too is the rugged
face, all weather- tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a Man
Jiving manlike. Oh, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must
pity as well as love thee! Hardly entreated Brother! For us was thy back so bent,
for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed; thou wert our Conscript, on
whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred. For in thee too lay a God-
created Form, but it was not to be unfolded; incrusted must it stand with the thick
adhesions and defacements of Labor; and thy body, like thy soul, was not to know
freedom. Yet toil on, toil on; THOU art in thy duty, be out of it who may; thou
toilest for the altogether indispensable, for daily bread.

"A second man I honor, and still more highly: Him who is seen toiling for the
spiritually indispensable; not daily bread, but the bread of Life. Is not he too in his
duty; endeavoring towards inward Harmony; revealing this, by act or by word, through
all his outward endeavors, be they high or low? Highest of all, when his outward and
his inward endeavor are one; when we can name him Artist; not earthly Craftsman
only, but inspired Thinker, who with heaven-made Implement conquers Heaven for
us! If the poor and humble toil that we have Food, must not the high and glorious toil
for him in return, that he have Light, have Guidance, Freedom, Immortality?

“These two, in all their degrees, I honor; all else is chaff and dust, which let the
wind blow wither it listeth.” — Carlyle.

Our Very Present Help*

By Amicus

Affectionately Dedicated to Dr. James E. Talmage

ONCE at the hour of dawn I stood upon the ocean shore,
waiting for the sunrise. On the horizon a sail moved slowly
to the distance. Clear it stood before the sky, bright in
light’s earliest rays. But when the sun rose I could sec the sail
no more, for the brightness of his shining. Yet, I knew that the
ship was there, sailing ever down the pathway of the light.

SO it is, I thought, with those whom God takes to Himself.
While we stand in the twilight of our feeble faith, they move,
splendid, to a wondrous destiny. When the Sun of His consolation
has arisen on our sight, they are hid in the glory of His Presence.
Then comes the day.

THERE was never a marriage without pain of parting. A
mother will weep when her daughter is taken from her care. Yet,
with loving anticipations, the daughter stands on the threshold of a
sweeter life, of a high and holy estate. For her the future’s promise
speaks stronger than the call of dying pasts.

EVEN thus, also, is the trembling ecstasy of the soul whom
God summons to that new life in His Presence. Whoso has heard
the music of His speaking attends no more to the poor harmonics
of earth. Whoso has beheld His golden splendor can sec no longer
in the twilight of our world. God comes very near, when eyes which
have lighted for us can discern His beckoning hand.

WE think that God despoils our love. Rather is it true that
He has allowed us brief foretaste of the joys prepared for them that
love Him. Was it not He who gave our treasure? He has but
borrowed His gift.

A JEWELER takes jewels that he may polish them, and repair
their settings. When they are returned, they shine with new beauty.
So God, the Master Workman, takes the precious jewels of our love,
that the Hands which shaped their beginning may perfect them for
endless life. When we receive them again, we shall know that He
makes all things new.

* Editorial Note: These thoughtful and inspiring paragraphs are from the pen of one of
"the honorable men of the earth", not a member of the Church but a true friend of the
Latter-day Saints. We print strictly according to copy as received.

666

IMPROVEMENT ERA

A GREAT king loved a humble maid, and sent his servants
offering marriage and rich gifts. She marveled that one so exalted
had inclined his eyes to the dust; but he set her upon his throne.

THE King of kings comes from His Glory to visit our humility.
The Almighty descends from the constellations to exalt our weak¬
ness. The Lord of splendors seeks love in our mean dwellings.

OUR lives are more precious in His sight than even to ourselves.
They are components of the eternal scheme, valuable in God’s mind,
which creation itself embodies. While we think of earth’s brief
sojourn. He knows an everlasting significance. “What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.”

EOR God the endless years are one enduring present. Every
beginning is before His eyes; all ends are in His hand. This world
and our brief life in it are small details in the intricacies of His vast
design. They are as one cast of a shuttle in the loom of His eternity.

COULD God desire aught, we know that, above all else, it is
the love of our heart. God loves even as a father, pitying his own
children, and in this clothes our human love with the glory of a
divine significance. We love Him because He first loved us: if we
miss blessedness, it is because His love goes unrequited. He made
man a little lower than the angels, and, for his first habitation,
planted a garden of delight. He numbers the very hairs of the head,
and rejoices when the wicked turns from wickedness.

BUT God is a jealous God; when He seeks the heart’s love.
He demands all. He strove to win us in our prosperity, but we
would not listen. He sues for the love which grief has wounded,
and exalts it with His comfort. He is the Eather of the fatherless
and the Husband of the widow. He is our Rock and our Habitation,
and our Very Present Help in trouble.

SORROW, suffering and death — they do not thwart Him.
They are angels sent to awaken us, that we may behold the splendor
of His Day. They are goads, wielded at His command, “Compel
them to come in”. They are deep shades laid down to set forth the
glowing colors of enduring love.

GOD opens the door of sorrow, but through it we may enter
the home of His tearless joy. He leaves the path of adversity rough
to our feet; but it is such a little way to the abode of His peace.
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; he shall be my son,
I will be his God.”

BLESSED, then, is sorrow: underneath are the Everlasting

OUR VERY PRESENT HELP

667

Arms. Blessed is adversity: it opens the eyes of faith. We can
not forget our troubles, but we can remember God. His it is to
take away their bitterness.

IN life’s loudest turmoil we may hear His speaking: “Be still
and know that I am God.” So the keen hearing of the prophet
discerned His whisper above the tumult of storm and earthquake
and mighty rushing wind. To him God was nearer than the
thoughts of his own heart: His stillness was louder than the outcry
of Nature’s terrors.

WHEN God promised Abraham a thing which seemed im¬
possible, Abraham believed, knowing God’s Almightiness. Thus
it was said that Abraham was the friend of God — he knew God.
But God would have such a friend in every soul.

FAITH is divine friendliness in the heart of man. It is the
power to think God’s thoughts. It is the soul’s sure knowledge
of God’s goodness, when it were too easy to believe in evil. Were
God not good, there were no need for faith.

FAITH discerns realities, while reason hesitates at evidences.
Through it we live by knowledge above understanding. By it we
testify, even unwillingly, to God’s unbreakable promises.

FAITH is the soul’s life with God. It reaches out in the
dark, knowing that it shall grasp a hand. It subsists in the con¬
fidence that the heart’s desires — those things which we earnestly
hope may be true — are the things which we were created to inherit.
It is the eyesight of the soul. While the soul lives it must depend
on faith.

WHEN we hunger or thirst, we seek food or drink. If weary
with labor, we seek refreshment in sleep. If lonely and forsaken,
we know that fellowship and sympathy may be found somewhere,
and our pain decreases. Provision for every need is only the law
of life. There is joyful requital for every proper desire of the heart.
In this fact we have enduring faith.

CREATION is glorious in its compensation: yet the soul of
man is not satisfied. There is thirst beyond the quenching of water:
there is hunger beyond satisfying with food. “As the hart pants
for brooks of water, my soul pants for Thee, O God: my soul
thirsts for the Living God.”

THE desire for God is the soul’s strongest passion. All else
men have forsaken, that they might, “haply, feel after and find
Him”. Many have fasted and tormented their flesh, hoping to win

668

IMPROVEMENT ERA

sight of Him. That God lives, and that He gives eternal life, are
hopes upheld by universal verdict. Who, then, is greater than the
prophets and martyrs, or better than all the wise and good, that
he should deny, when they believed and exulted?

IF nature provides to satisfy earthly cravings, can the soul’s
strong aspirations be in vain? If there is refreshment for thirst and
hunger, is there naught for the soul but dust? The Eternal One
has not scattered His power like smoke. The All-wise has not
written His wisdom on the waves. Smoke does not believe itself
a rock: waves do not hope to stand like hills. But the soul of man
has ever held the hope of immortality.

THE thought of God is conscious energy, moulding and com¬
pelling. It is life’s most potent force. That which a man thinks
of God’s character he begins to be: his thought of God is his own
highest ideal. If he knows God’s love, he becomes just and merci¬
ful, and strong in faith. If he knows God’s power, he borrows
strength against trouble, and learns patience in affliction. If he
knows God’s Almightiness, he begins to live the life of his eternal
world. Any state of living is an abode of joy and peace to him
who knows God’s reality.

WHEN masons build a house they set stones together, and bind
them with mortar. So God builds heaven with the souls whom
love may unify. Thus He erects His own eternal habitation. His
house not made with hands.

LOVE is the one activity in which we may cooperate with
God. It is only obedience to His law of life, the end and reason
of our creation. All that assists faith or righteousness is only a
means of perfecting love.

IN desiring love, in loving others, we tread the first step to
God’s Presence. Love is the force which urges us to God. It is a
gravitation stronger than the pull of suns and planets. It is man’s
title to divine heritage. “Whosoever loves is born of God, and knows
Him: for God is love.’’

GOD sees through eyes that look with love and good will.
Eyes that light with kindness discern God’s likeness in every soul.
When, of old. He trod our earth, surely He sanctified our dust for¬
ever. Henceforth, His very image is man himself, the proper object
of our love, because of Him.

DO we regret gentleness unspoken and kindness unperformed?
Do we bewail unworthy words and acts? We merely acknowledge

OUR VERY PRESENT HELP

669

that love has not ruled our lives. Were there naught to repent we had
fulfilled the whole law of God.

GOD’S law demands only those things which He created us
to manifest. Love alone is the law’s fulfilling: it is the all-binding
cohesion in the world of life which makes for unity with God.

GRIEF, mourning, repentance for sin — they are just loneliness
for God: the only real loneliness that the soul can feel. We yearn
for absent friends, although, did we but know it, we yearn far more
bitterly for God. Because the thought of His love consoles we are
assured of His promises. This is the glory of faith perfect in love.

GOD shaped the mind of man solely that Almighty Power
might be known as Love Divine. That is the greatest of all thoughts.
The humble flower dares to love the sun, and we behold the glories
born of her marriage with the light. This is a parable of the soul
that looks to God.

A TRAVELER found an ancient book, and none could spell
its writing. A learned man drew forth its meaning, and read anew
the glorious song of a forgotten poet.

GOD is the poet whose writing few can read, and many spell
not understanding. His is also the glorious Song of Life — blessed
is the soul that sings it.

WHEN God’s voice fell upon the formless earth, the universe
achieved creation. Wise men say that He spoke a Word of Power,
which was only His own beautiful Name.

“GOD” is the Word of Power which could make anew this
world of sorrow and of sin. Could all know Him as He would
manifest Himself, His tabernacle would be with man. Then there
would be no more death; neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain any
more.

WHOSO attends His words enters on the way out of sin,
error and the shadow of death. The heavenly life begins for every
soul that learns to dwell with God. Whoso has viewed that life,
even through the window of hope, ceases to mourn earthly joys,
which all leave so soon.

WHEN the veil before the Holiest Place is lifted, and He is
beheld between the Cherubim, who is it that we are come to worship?
No strange majesty oblivious of our being. No ruthless power
indifferent to our strivings. No dread tyrant eager to afflict and slay.

IT is He who planned the pitying heart of fatherhood and

670

IMPROVEMENT ERA

devised the mother’s love. It is He who paints glory on the flowers
of the field, and who notes the pitiful small tragedy of the sparrow’s
fall. It is He who hastens to welcome the wastrel limping home¬
ward, and who seeks the lost lamb in the wilderness.

YET He it is who binds the sweet influences of the Pleiades
and guides Arcturus with his sons: who laid the foundation of the
earth, and looses the bands of Orion. Thus we learn that mercy,
patience and loving-kindness are the working principles of Omnipo¬
tence.

IT is with such a One that we have to do. His arm is strong
to help, and His eye is watchful of our needs. As a child seeks
safety in its mother’s arms, so the soul of man turns for comfort
to the Living God.

HE is the Author of life and the Hope of immortality.

HE is the Delight in every joy and the Sun of every morning.

HE is the Sweetness of early hopes and the calm Content of age.

HE is the Glory of wisdom and the Desire of them that seek it.

HE is our Shield and our Exceeding Great Reward.

HE is light and love; also life, resurrection and the faith that
seeks Him.

ALL things whatsoever are in Him, and exist only that they
may tell of Him. They are measures in His song of the ages,
scanned to the rhythm of the moving stars.

IN all the eternal years God could be no nearer than He is
today. His love is in the highest heaven no more truly than in the
sorrow which drives us to Him. We may learn more devotion to
Him, but none can scale the towering heights of His love. “In Him
we live and move and have our being.’’ But “we are also His
offspring’’.

GOD binds loving souls together, as threads are woven in a
silken web. No death can sever them in His unfailing grasp. Love
that knows God defies the distance of earth and heaven: no parting
can disturb it. It waits eager at the threshold, sure that the door
will open.

LOVE is the seed of Everlasting Life sown in the soil of our
mortality. It is the echo of God’s voice which first commanded us
to be. It is the soul’s response to His insistent summons. It abides
in the heart of man, the one unfaltering testimony to immortal Hope.

THERE is no death. It is an evening, when we talk of to¬
morrow. It is the shadow of faith’s brief eclipse. It is the dropping

OUR VERY PRESENT HELP

671

of an eyelid which hides the glory of the sun. Thus a man goes
forth to his labor until the evening. Like him, when brief tasks are
done, the longing soul also returns home.

“BLESSED”, says the Master, “are those servants whom the
Lord at His coming shall find watching. Verily, He will gird
Himself and make them sit down to meat, and will come and serve
them”.

ENDLESS eternity contains one supermost moment — when,
as by promise, we shall see Him as He is. Then shall we behold
the One whom our heart has always sought; love’s Very Self, for
whose sake all loves have been conceived and born — the Beloved
of all love, the One Eternal Reason beneath all devotion. Faith
taught us to desire Him, and Hope strengthened our feet on the path¬
way to His Presence. But Faith and Hope are only Love called by
other names.

LIFE’S darkest hour is God’s hour. It is then that Hope and
Faith are kindled, even as lamps are lighted in the night. ITen
dawns the unfading day of love and sight, when all life is renewed.
As the shout of thunder stabs the silence of a solitary place. God’s
light rushes upon the darkness of our despair. Then we shall know
— God is here.

THY sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon with¬
draw herself; for the Lord shall be thine Everlasting Light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended.

An Episode of Euthanasia

When Death caressed me with her lingering arms.

And with cool palms stroked oft my beaded brow.

And flashed dark eyes into my nerv'ous sight.

I smiled and welcomed her. Was she not very kindi’

Did she not ease the pain that wracked my limbs.

And bid me swoon away in misty dreams
Where all things beautiful entranced my eyes.

And tunes of unborn melodies bid me hear
What joy held in reserve for mortal earsi"

Because I had no fear, her arms unclasped:

And. as a queenly-robed, immortal form.

Beautiful beyond all earthly comeliness.

She tarried but a moment to impress
My lingering vision with her loveliness.

And bade me wait till she should come again!

Joseph Longking Towmsend

Maywood, California

Sunlight and Health

By George H. Maughan, Department of Physiology,
Cornell University

The human body has been adapted to its environment by the
experience of the ages. It has developed the power of resisting
certain forces; and its well being has become dependent upon
others. Among the beneficial stimuli are radiations from the sun.
The body thrives in the light, and becomes less resistant to disease
and more anemic in the darkness.

But the radiations from the sun extend beyond visible light
into the much longer infra-red, or heat, waves and radio waves on
the one side, and into the short ultra-violet on the other. Certain of
these latter rays have great biologic power. For example, those
having a wave length between 290 mu. and 313 mu. are responsi¬
ble for most of the sunburn we experience when over-exposed on the
beach. They possess most of the germacidal power in sunlight and
are the rays which prevent rickets.

Rickets is a disease very common in children. It develops even
though the diet contains an abundance of all of the ordinary food
elements, including calcium and phosphorus. The symptoms in
most animals which develop a severe case are very much the same.
The bones fail to lay down the bony materials and consequently
they are thin and weak. The ribs are beaded and the joints of the
legs and arms are enlarged and contain an abnormal amount of
cartilage. The animal is unable to walk without great difficulty
and growth is retarded.

In our experiments, such a condition in chickens has been
repeatedly cured in four weeks by supplying ultra-violet radiations,
either from the sun or from artificial sources. The interesting and
almost marvelous thing is that these unseen and unfelt rays, in some
mysterious way, make the body able to use bone-building substances.

During the past two years, extensive experiments have been
carried out, in the Department of Physiology of Cornell University,
to determine the amount of exposure required to cure severe rickets.
A study has also been made relative to the area of the body through
which the rays enter; and the region in the spectrum concerned in
the cure of the disease. Results have clearly shown that only short
exposures are necessary. Five minutes daily irradiation from a
quartz mercury vapor lamp or one-half hour in the sunshine is
sufficient, but the rays must fall directly upon the skin.

The radiations are effective when they fall upon the parts of

SUNLIGHT AND HEALTH

673

the body that are not covered. Ordinary clothing, even one thick¬
ness, obstructs the rays; and certain of the longer ultra-violet waves
which were formerly thought to be valuable have been found in¬
effective.

The Department of Hygiene, in cooperation with the Medical
College, has made a study of the effects of weekly irradiations on
control of common colds. The subjects have been groups of college
students who were unusually susceptible to colds. Results show a
marked reduction in number and severity of the attacks of this most
troublesome malady. Indeed, many of these young men who were
ordinarily subject to almost continuous colds in winter have been,
during the period of irradiation, about as free from them as the or¬
dinarily resistant individual. Most people are much less susceptible to
colds in the summer than in winter. This seems to be partly due
to the fact that they get more sunshine in summer than in winter.

A skin which is exposed to air and sunshine becomes, because
of this fact, a better covering for the delicate tissues of the body. It
adjusts more readily to changes in the environment. It resists the
attacks of infectious organisms more successfully. Its glands and
cell layers are more vigorous and healthy.

In summer time children should be given frequent, but mod¬
erate, exposures of the entire body to sunshine; or so dressed as to
expose the arms, trunk and legs while they play out of doors. Perhaps
adults could so plan their leisure hours and recreation and modify
conventional dress as to secure for themselves more of these vital rays.

Ithaca, Netv York

Smoke

In times of gale, you curve — and sweep — Again my eager eyes discern

When winds are stilled, you curl — and creep — You into other visions turn —

A sinuous film of gray

I see processions, well defined.

That hides the grandeur of the hills.
And veils the smile of day.

Of vestals in their virgin robes:
The same ethereal kind

Then, like dark spirits raveling
Their robes as they go traveling
A course mapped out for stars.

With the delicate precision
Of their transcendant thought.

That master- wielders of the brush
Upon their canvas wrought

Are you that shed those sombre flakes

Which leave besmearing scars.

Sometimes your way you upward wend
And unto me a picture send
Of naiads clad in pearl.

In pondering your imagery.
This simile evolves for us —

Your adverse mood depicts mankind
In stage of primal crudity:

Or of a group of woodland nymphs
In graceful dancing whirl.

Provo, Utah

Robbed of your soot, you symbolize
Man's higher self — divinity.

Grace ingles Frost

Hill Ramah — Hill Cumorah

The Hill Cumorah*

By President Anthony W. Ivins

I FEEL very grateful to the Lord, my brethren and sisters, that,
through his mercy, all of us who are assembled here this morn¬
ing enjoy the opportunity of meeting together in general
conference, upon the ninety-eighth anniversary of the organization of
the Church.

Reference has been made by the President of the acquisition by
the Church of the spot of ground in the state of New York known as
rhe hill Cumorah. It appears to me to be an event of such importance
that I desire to devote the short time which is at my disposal this
morning to a discussion of that subject. There have been some
differences of opinion in regard to it, and in order that I might
be correct in the statements which I make I have this morning fin¬
ished a short manuscript which I would like to read — the first time,
i believe, in my experience, that I have ever addressed a congregation
in this manner, and I do it for the purpose stated.

An Important Event

I'he purchase of this hill, which President Grant has an¬
nounced, is an event of more than ordinary importance to the
membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The
memories of the remote past which cluster round this sacred spot, its
close association with the opening of the present gospel dispensa¬
tion, which has resulted in bringing together this congregation of peo¬
ple, for without it this tabernacle would not have been erected, nor
would we have been gathered here in worship today, and the thought
which we entertain of the possibilities which its bosom may unfold,
make the acquisition of this hill almost an epochal accomplishment
in the history of the Church.

If our Bible chronology is correct, and it is at least the best we
have, it was in the year 599 before the birth of Christ, our Lord,
that Zedekiah was chosen to be king of Judea. His reign was of
short duration, extending over a period of only eleven years. He
was in rebellion against the Babylonian kingdom, and Nebuchadnez¬
zar, king of Babylon, with his armies, overran Judea, made Zedekiah
prisoner, put out his eyes, killed his sons, and carried the king away
captive to Babylon.

It was during the reign of this king that Lehi and his family,

^Address delivered at the ninety-eighth annual conference of the Church. Salt Lake
Tabernacle. April 6. 1928.

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IMPROVEMENT ERA

Ishmacl and members of his household, and Zoram, who had been
a servant to Laban, left Jerusalem and began the journey which, in
rime, brought them to the American continent.

As a guide to their spiritual life these people brought with them
that part of the Holy Scripture known to us as the Old Testament,
which contained the first five books of Moses, the prophecies of
Isaiah, Jeremiah and others of the ancient prophets. These records
were engraved upon plates of brass.

Two Sets of Plates

Soon after the arrival of these people and their establishment
upon this continent, Nephi, the son of Lehi, was commanded to
make other plates, on which a record of the history of his people
was to be written. Two sets of plates were made from metal which
was smelted from ores that abounded in the new world to which the
Nephites had come; upon them Nephi commenced to record the
history of his people. Both of these sets of plates which were made
were called the plates of Nephi. Upon one set, which was called
the larger plates of Nephi, the secular history of the people was
kept, the reign of their various kings, their system of democratic
government under the judges who were chosen by the voice of the
people, and their wars and contentions. A smaller set was made,
on which the religious history of the people was kept, their faith in
God and the service rendered to him, their idolatry, the hand-
dealings of the Lord among them, the predictions of their prophets,
and the persecutions which they suffered because of their faith in,
and adherence to, the doctrines taught by their fathers.

It was principally from these latter plates that Mormon made
the abridgment which constitutes the volume known as the Book
of Mormon. These records were carefully preserved, and passed
through the hands of many different custodians before the history
closed, which was more than four hundred years after the birth of
the Redeemer of the world.

Besides these two sets of the plates of Nephi, and the brass
plates which were brought from Jerusalem, there were twenty-four
plates of gold, upon which was recorded a brief abridgment of the
history of a people who came from Babylon to this continent long
before the arrival of the Nephite colony. They left the old world
at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel, about 2,200 years
before the birth of Christ. It was from these latter plates that
Moroni, the son of Mormon, transcribed that portion of the Book
of Mormon known as the Book of Ether.

It was three hundred twenty-one years after the birth of Christ
that all of these records came into the hands of Ammaron, who re¬
ceived them from his brother Amos, who was the son of Nephi, who

THE HILL CUMORAH

677

wrote the fourth book of Nephi, which appears in the Book of
Mormon, as the following shows (I am quoting here, as I shall
continue to quote, from the Book of Mormon itself) ;

“And it came to pass that when three hundred twenty years had passed away,
Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were
sacred — yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation
to generation, which were sacred — even until the three hundred twentieth year from the
coming of Christ. And he did hide them up unto the Lord, that they might come
again unto the remnant of the House of Jacob, according to the prophecies and the
promises of the Lord. And thus is the end of the record of Ammaron.”

Ammaron to Mormon

One year later Ammaron called Mormon to him and gave
liim the following instruction:

“And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and
heard, and call it the Book of Mormon. And about the time that Ammaron hid up
the records unto the Lord, he came unto me, (I being about ten years of age, and I
began to be learned somewhat after the manner of the learning of my people) and
Ammaron said unto me: I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe;
therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years old I would that ye should remem¬
ber the things that ye have observed concerning this people; and when ye are of that
age go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim: and there have 1
deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people.

“And behold, ye shall take the plates of Nephi unto yourself, and the remainder
shall ye leave in the place where they are; and ye shall engrave on the plates of Nephi
all the things that ye have observed concerning this people.

“And I. Mormon, being a descendant of Nephi. (and my father's name was Mor¬
mon) I remembered the things which Ammaron commanded me.”

Fourteen years after this charge had been given to Mormon he
writes as follows:

“And now. the city of Jashon was near the land where Ammaron had deposited
the records unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed. And behold I had gone
according to the word of Ammaron, and taken the plates of Nephi, and did make a
record according to the words of Ammaron.”

It will be observed that at this time only the plates of Nephi
were removed from the hill Shim by Mormon.

Years of Constant War

It was forty years later, as near as we are able to fix the date,
that Mormon again visited this hill, under different circumstances,
r.s the following shows: Forty years had passed, forty years of
constant war and bloodshed between the Nephite people and their
enemies, the Lamanites. The Nephites were fleeing before their
enemies, taking all of the inhabitants with them when Mormon says:

“And now I. Mormon, seeing that the Lamanites were about to overthrow the
land, therefore I did go to the hill Shim, and did take up all of the records which
Ammaron had hid up unto the Lord.”

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IMPROVEMENT ERA

Mormon, after taking possession of the records, returned to the
command of the Nephite armies. The sacred records, which had
lain in the hill Shim for more than 50 years, were now in the custody
of Mormon, and the Nephite people were fleeing before their enemies.
Ten years later, ten years of hopeless struggle. Mormon again writes
as follows:

"And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired
of him that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the
land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them
battle. And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the
things which I desired. And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of
Cumorah. and we did pitch our tents round about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a
land of many waters, rivers, and fountains: and here we had hoped to gain advantage
over the Lamanites. And when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed
away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah.

In the Hill Cumorah

"And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the
land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old [this man, at this time, was past
70 years of age and was still the commander-in-chief of the Nephite army] : and knowing
it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I
should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were
s.tcred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them )
therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah
all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were
these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.

"And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did
now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching toward them; and with that awful
fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they wait to receive them.”

The Final Disposition

So far as we have information, this was the final disposition
which was made of the records given into the custody of Mormon,
from the plates of Nephi. This latter, with the addition of the
Book of Ether, and the few chapters written by Moroni, constitute
the record contained in the Book of Mormon.

All of the remaining records. Mormon tells us, were deposited
in the hill Cumorah.

That the hill Cumorah and the hill Ramah are identical is
shown by the following: Moroni, in the Book of Ether, says:

"And it came to pass that the armies of Coriantumr did press upon the arrhies of
Shiz [he is telling the story now of this first people who came to the American continent
from the Tower of Babel] that they beat them, that they caused them to flee before
them: and they did flee southward, and did pitch their tents in a place which was called
Ogath. And it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the
hill Ramah: and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the
records unto the Lord, which were sacred.”

The passages which I have quoted from the Book of Mormon

THE HILL CUMORAH

679

and the more extended discussion of this subject by Elder B. H.
Roberts which was published in The Deseret News of March 3
definitely established the following facts: That the hill Cumorah,
and the hill Ramah are identical. That it was around this hill that
the armies of both the Jaredites and Nephites fought their great last
battles. That it was in this hill that Mormon deposited all of the
sacred records which had been entrusted to his care by Ammaron,
except the abridgment which he had made from the plates of Nephi,
which were delivered into the hands of his son, Moroni. We know
positively th^t it was in this hill that Moroni deposited the abridg¬
ment made by his father, and his own abridgment of the record of
the Jaredites, and that it was from this hill that Joseph Smith ob¬
tained possession of them.

Part of the Record Sealed

Only a portion of the record which came into possession of
Joseph Smith was translated, and is contained in the present edition
of the Book of Mormon. Part of the record was sealed, which he
was forbidden to translate. The first Nephi, foreseeing that which
would occur among the descendants of his father, has this to say:

“And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words
of a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered.

"And behold the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from
God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof. Wherefore, because of the
things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the
day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be
kept from them.

“And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read
upon the housetops: and they shall be read by the power of Christ: and all things shall
be revealed unto the children of men whichever have been among the children of men.
and whichever will be unto the end of the earth.”

From the Book of Ether

The footnotes with that which I have read refer us to the
book of Ether, from which I desire to read a few paragraphs:

“And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount
from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were
forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up
upon the cross: and for this cause did King Mosiah keep them, that they should not
come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people. And
after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should
be made manifest.

“And now, after that, they have all dwindled in unbelief; and there is none save
it be the Lamanites, and they have rejected the gospel of Christ; therefore* I am
commanded that I should hide them up again in the earth,

"Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of
Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest, than those which

680

IMPROVEMENT ERA

were made manifest unto the brother of Jared. Wherefore the Lord hath com¬
manded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I
should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpreta¬
tion thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the command¬
ment of the Lord. For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the
Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before
the Lord.

“And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, accord¬
ing to my memory; and I have told you the things which I have sealed up; therefore
touch them not in order that ye may translate; for that thing is forbidden you, except by
and by it shall be wisdom in God.”

Awaiting the Time

This sealed portion of the record which came into the hands
of Joseph Smith but was not translated by him so far as we are
aware, with the abridgment made by Mormon, the record of Ether,
and the other sacred records which were deposited in the hill
Cumorah still lie in their repository, awaiting the time when the
Lord shall see fit to bring them forth, that they may be published
to the world.

Whether they have been removed from the spot where Mor¬
mon deposited them we cannot tell, but this we know, that they are
safe under the guardianship of the Lord, and that they will be
brought forth at the proper time, as the Lord has declared they should
be, for the benefit and blessing of the people of the world, for his
word never fails.

According to the Book of Mormon, many hundreds of thou¬
sands of people fell in battle around this hill and in the immediate
vicinity. It was here that two once-powerful nations were exter¬
minated so far as their national existence was concerned. It was
here that these nations gathered together for their last great struggles.

Until the Last

These people were human, as we are; they carried with them
their most precious possessions until the last, and when the end of
the mighty struggle came and the result was in doubt, they hid them
away in order that they might not fall into the hands of their enemies.

Without doubt, these treasures lie concealed today, some of
them, at least, to be brought forth in the not-distant future. How
soon this will be we do not know, but this is certain, we are more
than a century nearer that time than we were at the time when
Joseph Smith took from their resting place, in the hill Cumorah,
the plates from which he translated the contents of the Book of
Mormon.

All of these incidents to which I have referred, my brethren
and sisters, are very closely associated with this particular spot in the

THE HILL CUMORAH

681

State of New York. Therefore I feel, as I said in the beginning of
my remarks, that the acquisition of that spot of ground is more than
an incident in the history of the Church; it is an epoch — an epoch
which in my opinion is fraught with that which may become of
greater interest to the Latter-day Saints than that which has already
occurred. We know that all of these records, all the sacred records
of the Nephite people, were deposited by Mormon in that hill. That
incident alone is sufficient to make it the sacred and hallowed spot
that it is to us. I thank God that, in a way which seems to have
been providential, it has come into the possession of the Church.

I bear witness to you that the words which I have read here,
quoted from the Book of Mormon, which refer to the future will be
fulfilled. Those additional records will come forth, they will be
published to the world, that the children of our Father may be con¬
verted to faith in Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, through obedience
to the doctrines which he taught. May God our Father hasten that
day, is my humble prayer, and I ask it through Jesus Christ. Amen.

What We Need

We need not read all of the badness
The papers report every day;

Nor cling to the sorrow and sadness
So common in life's hurried way:

But we do need the strength and the gladness
We find when we fervently pray.

We need, then, to "pray without ceasing”.

As Jesus our Savior has said.

Our souls from doubt’s shadows releasing.
Creating heart sunshine instead.

Pure faith and good works thus increasing:

So shall we in safety be led.

We need to guard all we are saying,

That we may "offend not in word".

The prophet’s wise precepts obeying.

As old and new scriptures record.

While studying, working and praying.

We need to live near to the Lord,

We need to accept all his warnings.

Confessing his hand in the rod

Which will lead us both evenings and mornings

In paths which the lowly have trod.

Towards life in its richest adotnings —
Celestial, eternal, with God,

May 1, 1928

Lxjla Greene Richards

change of Sentiment

By Willard W. Bean, Caretaker of Cumorah

After Jesus was baptized of John in the river Jordan, he
began his ministry in Galilee. It was not long before he
paid his home town, Nazareth, a visit. On the Sabbath
day, as was his custom, he went to the synagogue to worship. They
handed him the book of Isaiah from which he read, beginning at
what is now, in our common version, the sixty-first chapter, after
which he closed the book and said: “This day is this scripture ful¬
filled in your ears.” Or, in other words, I am He of whom Isaiah
spake. Picture the scene. Listen to the comment: “Is not this
Joseph’s son?” And they were filled with wrath. Jesus said,
“Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.”
And during his brief ministry he was variously accused of being
a wine bibber, a gluttonous man, a friend of publicans and sinners,
a mad man, a man that hath a devil, a desecrater of the Sabbath, a
blasphemer, a stirrer up of sedition, etc.

When I arrived in Palmyra, with my family, in 1914, to take
over the Joseph Smith farm and act as caretaker, we found the senti¬
ment toward Joseph Smith not unlike that which prevailed at
Nazareth toward the Master when he began his earthly ministry. I
realized more than ever before the full significance of Jesus’ saying:
“No prophet is accepted in his own country.” Joseph Smith was
commonly referred to as a tow-headed, illiterate dreamer and for¬
tune teller, an idle jack-knife swapper, a musk-rat and wood-chuck
trapper, a chicken thief, sheep thief, smoke purloiner, visionary gold
digger, etc. And they could prove it to their entire satisfaction from
the accepted history of Wayne county, which has a wilfully and con¬
temptibly written chapter on the Smith family and “Mormonism”.
This was read by each generation as it grew up, and the junior and
senior high school students seemed to pride themselves in basing one
of their oratoricals each year on this particular chapter. It was a
popular theme, as the history was taken at face value. It also men¬
tions, among other things, that an attempt was made in 1830 to
proselyte the people of Palmyra to “Joe Smith’s delusions”, and
Oliver Cowdery gave a talk in the “Young Men’s Club” hall, but
met with so cold a reception that he never made a second attempt
and “Palmyra is well rid of a bad lot”.

So, naturally, when the good people of Palmyra learned that
a “Mormon” family had settled on the “old Smith homestead” near

CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

683

Farm on State Highway
On the west side of the hill Cumorah

Palmyra, they were a little curious to see us, but didn’t seem to warm
up much toward their new neighbors. But that was quite natural
and rather to be expected, especially after I had familiarized myself
with local history and listened to the old stories that had been
handed down from one generation to another. We were pointed
out and discussed in all assemblies. Another thing that possibly
gave occasion for some of the more fertile imaginations to work
overtime on gossip, was that my wife happens to be some years
younger than myself, and we brought two children, 12 and 14
years of age, from a former marriage. This, of course, was the
latest addition to my harem, and that it was customary to live
with each new one for seven years, etc. To help keep this gospel
alive, five different anti-“Mormon” lecturers were booked to lecture
in the churches on the four corners. Resolutions were passed by
various auxiliary organizations of the churches, farmers’ grange asso¬
ciation. etc., pledging themselves to discourage any attempt at “Mor¬
mon” propaganda and to show their disapproval by non-attendance.

But they soon learned to tolerate us and, in time, to respect
us; and, finally, decided that we were good citizens and an asset to

684

IMPROVEMENT ERA

the community. About five years ago we purchased the J. H. Inglis
farm, consisting of 97 acres, situated on the state highway and taking
in part of the hill Cumorah. About three years ago we negotiated
a deal whereby we came into possession of the Peter Whitmer farm
in Fayette, Seneca county. This farm consists of 100 acres, and
is historic by reason of its being the birth place of the Church,
where part of the Book of Mormon was translated, where a number
of the early revelations recorded in the Doc. and Cov., were received,
and where the three special witnesses saw the angel Moroni and the
gold plates.

While Pliny T. Sexton was alive, he phoned me to call at
his office as he had a matter of interest to our people to talk over
with me. He said that our people had entertained a desire to get
possession of the property known locally as “Mormon Hill”. He
said that he had been thinking the matter over, and, as he was
having a little trouble getting suitable tenants for his many farms,
he thought the time opportune to let us have it at the “modest”
price of one hundred thousand dollars. He seemed to be under the
impression that we would be glad to get the hill at any price and

Buildings on Cumorah Farm
Taken from the side of the hill Cumorah

CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

685

Bennett Farm

Consisting of 220 acres which include the south end of the hill Cumorah

appeared somewhat annoyed when he was informed that he had set
his price too high.

Subsequently, he died, leaving his vast property accumulations
to one hundred two heirs, the nearest of kin being two nieces. When
the question of disposing of the hill Cumorah property came up,
certain of the principal heirs, influenced, more or less, by prej¬
udice, were opposed to selling it to the “Mormons” at any price and
were even willing to lose their share, if need be, to keep it from
falling into our hands. Death removed some of those opposed and.
early in the present year, it seemed that the coast was about clear
of obstacles. I had a talk with the attorney who represented some
of the more obstreperous ones and during the next meeting of the
executors and heirs, or their representatives, there was no protest
registered. The attorney for the estate called me by phone and
wanted to see me at once. He seemed ready and eager to talk busi¬
ness: was in a very pleasant mood. After examining a number of
propositions, one came up that I thought we might accept. I told
him to put it in writing, sign it and get the other executor (one had
previously died ) to sign it. and I would make a deposit if necessary,
and start negotiations. The agreement was written and signed. I

686

IMPROVEMENT ERA

went home and immediately wrote to the authorities, enclosing the
proposition with signed agreement, asking them to consider it if
they felt that the right time had arrived for us to acquire the hill
Cumorah. This was on February 2, and, in a few days, I received
the following letter, dated also February 2:

Dear Brother Bean: Please secure a definite offer, in writing if you can possibly
do so, from the executors of Mr. Sexton’s estate, for the hill farm of 170 acres. If
they will not sell it alone, get a definite offer on the other pieces of property with
the hill. But to make it binding, it would be best to have this offer in writing. If
you have to pa'y ten or twenty dollars to secure a thirty-day option, this would be
the safest way to hold it. An early reply will oblige.

Sincerely your brethren,

Heber J. Grant,

A. W. Ivins,

C. W. Nibley,

First Presidency.

Rather a peculiar coincidence that they should be writing me the
same day and possibly the same hour to do something which I was
telling them I had already carried into effect to the very last detail.
The same day I received a telegram saying that the deal was satisfac¬
tory and to proceed to get out abstracts, titles, etc.

"Grange Home"

In the city of Palmyra. New York, included in the recent purchase by the Church

CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

687

This deal included the north end of the hill Cumorah, once
owned by Admiral William T. Sampson, consisting of 170 acres;
the Bennett farm consisting of 220 acres, taking in the south end of
the hill; the Tripp farm joining on the east, consisting of 92 acres,
and the Grange Hall, in the village of Palmyra, a beautiful pressed-
brick building, just off main street, near the busiest corners.

This gives us a total acreage of 818 acres of land where “Mor-
monism” had its beginning. The sentiment has so far changed that
there is scarcely more than a faint echo of the former prejudice.
Certain ones of the super-pious sort felt a little shocked when they
read an account of the recent deal and expressed themselves as being
fearful that we might establish a colony here, and our people reach
a majority and run the whole community. But there is always
somebody present who volunteers to defend us, by saying: “It would
be a good thing if they do get possession. Those people run things
right. If the people they have here now and the ones we have seen
visiting here are fair samples, we can’t get too many of them.’’

Hundreds of our young missionaries have been here, and, dur¬
ing our celebrations, a great many have had to stop at hotels and
private residences in the village, and invariably leave a good im¬
pression which is far reaching. Landladies go out of their way
to tell me of their splendid deportment. It seems to be common
knowledge now that we have the cleanest group of young people in
the world. People also travel more now-a-days. A number from
our village who have been west, and stopped off at Salt Lake City,
are very warm in their praise of the city and the treatment they re¬
ceived while there. Personally, we have plenty of friends, and are
now trying to make friends for Joseph Smith and the revealed gospel
that made him what he was. The change is most noticeable. It is
no longer “Joe Smith’s old home’’, but the Joseph Smith Farm. It
is no longer “Mormon hill where Joe Smith dug up the Golden (or
‘Mormon’) Bible’’, but Cumorah Hill or Mt. Cumorah. A former
tenant of the hill Cumorah farm, who used to drive our people off
the hill, is now working for us and is glad of it. It would be a hard
matter now for anybody to abuse the “Mormons”, or say slighting
things about us and get away with it. There is always somebody
ready to defend us.

Palmyra. New York

Make More of Family Life

“How much more we might make of our family life, if our friendships, if evcrv
secret thought of love blossomed into a deed! * * * There are words and looks an !
little observances, thoughtfulnesses, watchful little attentions, which speak of love, wh ch
make it manifest, and there is scarcely a family that might not be richer in heart-wealth
for more of them.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The Wisdom of the Wise

By George Albert Smith, Jr., Superintendent Y. M. M. I. A.
Swiss-German Mission

IT IS A FACT of general admission that both the peoples and
powers of the earth have the desire to live at peace with one
another. Mankind is not inclined, fundamentally, to have wars,
nor to have strife. That the fruits of peace are much more desirable
than the turmoils of war is an almost self-evident fact. Yet, we
do not reach the longed-for goal.

Nations come together to establish good-will on a firmer basis,
having the best intentions, and when they part they are often
farther away than ever. Conferences, agreements, and leagues of
the most solemn and pacific countenance have fallen miserably short
of their goal.

An honest observation shows this to be true, not only in the
case of governments, but also of individuals; a desire for a better
and more profitable life, but a pitiable lack of ability to attain it.

These are characteristics of our present-day age, and of all ages
of peoples and nations who are not actuated by the forces, the im¬
pulses, and the standards of true religion.

The Master taught that these very desirable characteristics are
the fruits of faith; and that we can easily have them, if we but obey
the laws governing them. He said further, that we should seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and that if
we did, all things else of lasting value would be added unto us.
And these words contain the key to the solution of our problems.
We have had it for thousands of years in this or a slightly different
form, and yet men cannot discover it in its full significance.

We live in a highly educated age (and the value of learning
must never be underestimated) ; but our education in and of itself
can easily blind us, rather than illuminate our lives. The attitudes
and motives which transfer the knowledge into lasting and effective
every-day life must be learned in a more spiritual school. Education
deals in “hows” more than “whys”, and we must have the fully
developed and balanced view to attain that which we seek.

We must have something which will force us, or better said,
guide us to do our best. True religion will do this, but wisdom
or knowledge as sole driving forces have never succeeded. Education
in and of itself is very materialistic, and yet the trend of history and
life is not determined by the outward manifestations of nature, but
rather by the inner. It deals with men’s souls, with love, with hate.

THE WISDOM OF THE WISE

689

with faith, with jealousy and the other passions. They are schooled,
not by the craftiness of man, but by the Spirit of God.

There are certain tendencies of our modernism which are detri¬
mental to progress in all fields of endeavor, and especially in this
most important one, and which we must avoid or we shall be carried
on with the flood past our objective and not recognize it.

The journalism of our day is highly critical, but unconstruct-
ively critical. And inasmuch as the printed word is both a cause and
a result of popular opinion and mind, this has become a characteristic
of the readers as well as the writers. How many articles are written,
how many sermons preached, which point out the weakness of some
prevailing system without attempting to formulate a remedy? We
read such and have the feeling that something is wrong, yet we have
not been given anything better.

That is a very dangerous state of mind, for it is purely de¬
structive, and not constructive. When it is turned on religion, on
true religion, and tested, its fallacy becomes obvious, for all
attempts to provide a substitute have shown the error of the criticism
rather than the criticised. If all would apply the test of logic,
and of fact, the trouble would be solved, but the average man
rather presumes that it is already a proved fact, and accepts the
verdict as just and sufficient. We must guard against the tendency
to let our thinking be guided by sensationalists, by scenario writers,
by vaudeville entertainers and joke books.

A man says he would rather be broad-minded than religious,
and infers thereby that the religious man is narrow-minded, which
is a fallacious hypothesis. Such is, however, typical of the anti-
religious argument. It deals in sophistry, and is calculated to stimu¬
late ready approval rather than earnest thinking. It gives as an¬
swer to a sensible argument, a joke, which, unfortunately, tickles
the ears of persons who have greater respect for wit than for pro¬
found thought.

We must rise above this cloud of easy-going approval to see
the true nature and color of things in the light of reality. The
religious person is painted by this false art as weak, ignorant,
short-sighted, and highly impractical. The thought that he fears
to do wrong spreads much faster than the true fact that he has the
courage to do right. Christ, the ideal, has been falsely portrayed
to much by word and brush that he is thought of as being weak,
and effeminate; whereas, he was vigorous, active, and courageous.
The basis of his doctrine was individual responsibility, which calls
forth the best and most virile attributes of man. It requires faith,
which is not blindness, but vision. It requires obedience, which
does not mean fear to do, but dare to do.

690

IMPROVEMENT ERA

Many philosophers, both before and after the Savior, have been
able to evolve plans of peace which appeal to the reason, but which
fail when applied. They do not seek the kingdom of God first, they
seek “all things else’’, and of course they must fail. Their methods
are solely material, and not spiritual. They attempt to ignore causes,
and try to obtain the results.

This is illustrated in a civilization which does more to cure
social disease than to prevent immorality: which tries to force dis¬
cipline and order rather than teach brotherly love; which makes
laws and tries to enforce them with physical force, rather than to
instill the true principles of an orderly and happy life into the
souls of men.

The learning of the world, all that is true and uplifting and
good, may go hand in hand with true religion, the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and only when it does can it achieve its high purpose. All
these other things are means to the end, and should not be considered
themselves as objectives. We must be spiritually balanced to effect
an application. We must develop those qualities of character which
are lasting, and which alone enables us to attain the goals which
men and nations so long for — outward and inward peace.

This is the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to teach us
these principles. We must learn them and obey them. It is the
eternal law of cause and effect in its widest application. There is
no other way.

Basel, Switzerland

The Sinner’s Prayer

I am weighted down with habits of sin
Which bind me with fetters of steel.

May the peace of thy spirit renew me within
And the joy of repentance reveal.

I plead for mercy from heaven above,

I pray not for power, riches or pelf.

Oh. grant me a share in thy infinite love;

O Lord, give me courage to conquer myself.

The fame of a conquering general is great.
When behind him vast ruins we see.

But, Father, I crave no such honor or state.
Oh! please give me power to conquer just ME.

Beaver, Utah

E. Cecil McGavin

Knowledge of Technique

By Chas. Kent, Supervisor oe Music,

Public Schools, Rock Springs, Wyo.

WE have voices and natural talents in this country that can
easily compete with those of any other nation on earth, but,
as everything tends toward the mighty dollar, study is neg¬
lected, and get-rich-quick singing is uppermost in the student mind.
The slogan of the day seems to be, “get wise quick.’’ The result is a
decadence in vocal standards; purity of tone and artistic ideals are
neglected, and loud singing and questionable effects substituted.
There is a lack of desire for knowledge of technique; operatic arias,
and particularly the dramatic ones, inspire the youthful aspirant and,
as a consequence, many teachers are forced against their better convic¬
tions to cater to the student’s erroneous ideas.

The obvious time to correct this tendency is at a very early age,
and the appropriate place is in the schools. Here is your opportunity
to render an invaluable service to the nation. You can begin to cul¬
tivate the child’s appreciation and, through normal gradation, create
a desire for purity and artistry, instead of the bombastic and the
spectacular. It is an interesting fact that the child’s mind is like a
thirsty sponge, ever ready to absorb. His mind in the receptive stage
gives music the great opportunity to make its appeal through ex¬
pression. This must be transmitted by the teacher; it can not be
told or taught. Some wise man has said, “You cannot learn nothing
to nobody.’’ This applies particularly to the vocal question in the
child. Give anyone a tone, and more especially a child, and he will
approximate the pitch without reasoning how or where to acquire it.
A good tonal example will generally induce a better response than a
poor one, especially in children, who are natural imitators. A tonal
example that is agreeable and free would unconsciously appeal to the
child’s hearing and create a genuine interest. Feed the youthful mind
with these subtleties rather than with drier mechanics. It is obvious
that the teacher himself, in order to accomplish this, should be able
to sing a tone with correct vocal production. How otherwise would
you expect to inspire the child with the proper appreciation? To im¬
prove the child’s voice, you should cultivate your own so that you
can illustrate correctly. This will benefit the speaking as well as
the singing voice. Your work will be enhanced almost beyond con¬
ception. You must educate your own hearing if you are to educate
the ear of the child towards his own organ.

I feel that this most important and valuable part of the work

692

IMPROVEMENT ERA

is the most neglected — to teach one to hear himself. It is inconceiv¬
able to me how anyone can fail to hear himself when the ear is cor¬
rectly educated. It is merely an evolution toward keen aural appre¬
ciation. Physicists state that the ear as a sense is even keener than the
eye. I have repeatedly demonstrated to myself and to others that our
aural perception of our own tone production is an absolute and
essential necessity. It is necessary to have the child learn to know
through hearing, by teaching it the correct pitch and the tone quality
desired. He is not encumbered at this period with methods and so
he can the more easily learn inductively. Those who can not hear
themselves have never been taught to develop that sense. It is best
to allow children slowly to mature, musically and vocally, through
induction. To sing correctly and artistically, many qualifications
arc needed. Voice, musicianship, intelligence and imagination arc
the principal qualifications.

Pioneer Days in Arizona

It was during the time of serious In¬
dian troubles, in the 80’s. that a small
party of “Mormon” pioneer farmers from
Utah were on their way to the Gila valley,
in southern Arizona. They had heard of
frequent Indian depredations and murders
in the very country through which they
were passing and they realized their great
danger.

One morning, as they were about to
break camp, on the Mogollon Mesa, south
of the Little Colorado River in Arizona,
they gathered in a circle about the dying
tmbers of their camp fire. The leader of
the party raised his hands and. as the others
bowed their heads, prayed to God for his
blessing and protection.

Just then something else was happening
about them. A band of Apaches were
stealthily creeping upon them in the sur¬

rounding underbrush. The Indians were
within a few yards, had their bows and ar¬
rows, their tomahawks and guns, all ready
for the signal from their chief to pounce
upon the little party of pioneers and mas¬
sacre them, when, suddenly, with bowed
heads and upraised hands, the travelers be¬
gan to pray to God.

The Indians did not wait for the signal
from their chief, but crept quietly away, ex¬
pecting, as they gathered again, to be pun¬
ished for acting without his orders. But,
instead of punishment, the chief said he was
glad they had not harmed these white peo¬
ple, because they were children of the Great
Spirit to whom they prayed.

Three of the more friendly Indians left
the band, overtook the pioneer party, as
they were driving on in their wagons, and
told them how they had barely escaped
massacre. — LeRoi C. Snow.

A Worldly Paradise

[An interesting letter, written by Dr. Geo. W. Middleton, of Salt Lake City, while
on his recent visit to the Hawaiian Islands, to Dr. Frederick J. Pack. Department of Geology.
University of Utah. — Editors.]

Honolulu, Mar. 20, 1928

Dr. F. J. Pack.

My Dear Friend:

I have had several eventful days since
the good ship Malolo came to anchor in
this harbor. This is surely the paradise
of the Pacific.

As you know, from the geologist's
viewpoint, the islands are all volcanic.
Doctor Gregory of Yale tells me, and I
think you told me before, that it is all
tertiary and post tertiary. Some of these
mountains look very ancient to me, and,
of course, some of the stuff is still pour¬
ing from the active craters.

I will tell you first of the visit to
Kilauea. We left this island in the eve¬
ning for an all-night cruise. In the early
morning we found ourselves anchored at

Hilo, on the shore of Hawaii, the largest
island. In the forenoon they took us
through the sugar cane plantations, and in
the afternoon we drove up to the Volcano
Hotel, on the edge of the crater. A pre¬
liminary trip around the periphery, in the
cool of the evening, was very instructive.
They showed us tree casts, where the
flowing lava streams have surrounded huge
forest trees, and solidified and then burned
out their wooden core. At the national
observatory, they had a picture-slide lec¬
ture, showing many of the different flows
in action, and explaining their various
phenomena.

In the early morning I joined a hiking
party, and we went right through the
heart of the great crater of Kilauea, three
miles in diameter. The trail has been

Keanakakoi Crater Volcano, Hawaii

694

IMPROVEMENT ERA

well marked with boulders, and our guide
had no trouble in finding his way. In
1924 this was a seething, boiling mass,
sixty feet deep, of white-hot lava. In
every direction were jets of steam and
smoke relieving the internal tension. The
wandering winds have scattered the seeds
of flowers and ferns across the waste, and,
wherever a pocket accumulates a bit of
soil, plant life begins to show itself. At
the end of our three-mile hike, we came
to the brink of the inner crater, Hela-
maumau, which is 3,500 feet across and
1,200 feet deep, with perpendicular,
crumbling walls.

In 1924 this whole thing shot out and
sent boulders weighing tons to the height
of a mile and a half. Once in every
while it fills up and overflows its rim,
and sends a stream or streams of lava
toward the sea. At the present time it
smoulders only, but nobody knows when
It will burst forth. The principal danger
to visitors when it is in eruption is from
falling stones, or from being hemmed in
between two streams. One visitor, two or
three years ago, found himself so hemmed
in, and he saved himself by throwing a
large kodak to the center of the stream,
and making the distance across in two
jumps. One man was killed by a falling
stone in the great explosive eruption of
1924.

We went many hundred] feet through a
huge volcanic tube, the nature of which
you first explained to me many years ago.
Kilauea is on the flank of Mauna Loa.
but there appears to be no syncronism
in their action. Mauna Loa erupts once
about every seven years, but Kilauea every
few months.

A night cruise brought us back to this
most interesting city. The vegetation is
varied and ornamental. Nearly all the
shrubs and trees bear blossoms of some
kind, and the color scheme of nature is
most pleasing. The bougainvilea, in its
variously brilliant shades, is the most con¬
spicuous. In some respects, nature has
reversed the order of things here. For the
most part, she hangs her ponderous things
on fragile vines, where they develop on
the surface of the earth, and where they

cannot fall and do damage; but here we
see these huge cocoanuts at the top of
palms forty or fifty feet high, where they
might ripen and fall at any moment. Im¬
agine the ignomy of having your head
broken by a falling cocoanut. The huge
banyan tree, as you know, is a compound
tree. When the branch reaches, in its
growth, a certain horizontal distance from
the trunk, it drops down a tendril, which
takes hold in the soil and rapidly becomes
another trunk, rivaling in size the primary
one. In this way, one tree spreads over a
great space, and maintains itself by the
multitude of its trunk roots. Palms of
most all kinds grow without effort. The
stately royal palm, with its symmetrical,
smooth trunk, looks like a Grecian column,
and when they have been laid out in a
row they look like an ancient colonnade.
The cocoa palm and the banana palm are
ubiquitous.

The most interesting of all things to me
are the people. Nine different nationalities
are represented. Add to that all the crosses
imaginable, and you have some idea of the
racial problem. From everywhere these
little oogie eyes are looking at you. The
islands are prolific in children. At the
Aquarium, two kindergarten teachers came
in with a group of thirty to forty children.
The inquisitive little oogie eyes sparkled
with interest. They all looked alike to
me. but those teachers could point out,
without effort, the differences between the
Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the
Filipinos, etc. There is no race prejudice,
and inter-marriage across racial lines is the
common thing. Doctor Gregory tells me
that the cross between Chinese and
Hawaiian, and probably the cross between
Caucasian and Hawaiian bring out the best
qualities of both races. It will be an in¬
teresting thing in the decades forward to
see what this mongrel race is going to
attain.

These mongols are patient, industrious,
thrifty and clean. The problems of the
centuries forward in the history of the
United States revolve around these people.
When Americans have committed race
suicide, and grown too proud and haughty
to work, these yellow men may be the

A WORLDLY PARADISE

695

Of all things Hawaiian, the people arc the most interesting

scourge that awaits them to punish them
for their racial sins. The Hawaiian, as a
race, is rapidly dying out. Inter-racial
marriage and high infantile mortality spell
their doom. Of the 24,000 still re¬
maining, more than half of them belong
to our Church. The mission seems pros¬
perous, and the name "Mormon” is at a
premium among all classes here,

Waikiki beach is the playground of the
rich from all countries, but principally
from the States, It is a beautiful beach,
with coral sand and green-blue serf. The
water remains the same temperature as the

superimposed air, and the people bathe
with delight the year round.

A young man by the name of Ford
Clark was assigned to be my cabin mate
on the return trip from the volcano. He
has been sociable and courteous. He says,
“Tell my friend. Professor Pack, that I
am one that never forgets.”

My love to you and your family. I
will get at those letters about which we
talked, but I was seasick on the way, and
am just now coming to earth in the midst
of this paradise.

Sincerely your friend.

Geo. W. Middleton

Houses

They're not just houses in a row.

They’re homes where fire-lights softly glow
And hearts are tuned with love and joy;

A bit of pain to make alloy.

With gold and dross in changing gleams;

A place of hopes and faith and dreams.

Each one a sanctified retreat;

A call to tired returning feet;

Where wife and child and love abide;

A door that shuts the world outside;
Sustaining force for worth-while deeds.
But quick to serve a neighbor’s needs.

The latch-key fits, this one is mine;
Behind its walls a peace divine;

A light to call when footsteps stray;

A memory to guide the day;

A tie that binds where e’re I roam —
God bless each little house that’s Home.

Nepht. Utah

Mrs. Merling D. Clyde

Eden

By Albert R. Lyman

Starting from camp that second morn¬
ing. with my solitary trail reaching wearily
on through desert silence, strange mem¬
ories seemed perculiarly ready to awake
from mysterious, old chambers in my
subconsciousness. I wondered if it could
be a dream which had drifted to my
drowsy brain as I slept in that midnight
solitude, — a remarkable dream arousing
emotions and ambitions for something im¬
mortal. lYet, the same thing had hung on
the echoes of the cavernous gulches the
day before: I had almost caught it in the
wildly sweet notes of a thrush nesting in
tall greasewoods.

Within us “there rises an unspeakable
desire after a knowledge of our buried
life,” and I attributed my vague longings
to that desire. Whatever it was, coming
in ithe sacred hush of that splendid isola¬
tion, it aroused instincts strangely prime¬
val, making the coarse realities of my sur¬
roundings bitter in contrast. I would
have given a horse to recall it all clearly,
as I followed my pack along that dusty
trail. The gray sentinel rocks gazing
solemnly down upon me, and their brother
sentinels shrouded in mists and haze of
distance, no doubt, held the secret un¬
clouded in their ancient hearts as a heritage
of their vigil through the long ages, and
they seemed ready to speak wondrous
things.

I had never been there before. Away
yonder, by the point of that sombre nose
on the desert’s solemn profile, I was to
find Scarecrow Springs, and meet a rep¬
resentative of Snide and Smithers. I gazed
at that portentous nose, tracing ominous
lips on the horizon below it, and a flow¬
ing beard as of a hoary oracle. Sleeping
memories stirred feebly in their tombs from
an ancient world: a hush fell on the
whisperings of the desert. The face of a
certain man came to my recollection — the
face and form of a man I had known as

the chief florist — the florist of the palace.
But why his charm, why I loved him,
what palace, or what this man of strange
memories was to me, I would not pause
to consider lest the spell be broken.

His name — ^his name — it hung stub¬
bornly just beyond reach of my tongue’s
eager effort to speak it. Yet, I had sure¬
ly known and spoken it as I gazed in the
friendly eye of the florist by the vine-cov¬
ered wall. His eyes came plainer still to
my recollection, eyes with a keen twinkle
or humor and brows of firmness and
chivalry. His glance inspired courage, his
smile gave cheer and kind lines ran
around his resolute lips.

The chief florist resembled no man in
my recent acquaintance, for I recalled him
clearly, — six feet in height, commanding
and beautiful in appearance. And, inex¬
plicable but sweet to contemplate, I loved
him. I recalled the assuring grip of his
hand, his friendly arm around me, and
my glad response to his magnificent
courage.

But why? What could it mean? Why
should these unusual things engross me in
the remoteness of this wilderness till my
natural environments became trifling mat¬
ters far away? I was sure his name and
whole situation stood imperishably there
in the undying archives of my psychic
self, as sure of it as of words or names I
cannot for the moment recall though they
have been common to my speech for years.

Then, in those rising memories, 1 caught
the outline of a woman’s face! The love
of man is dear to the heart, but. Oh, the
charm of a lovely woman — especially this
woman! — this woman revealed to me by
the sentinel rocks of the ages! — this wom¬
an called back, by the portentous oracle of
the desert, from the realms “of our buried
life” !

Who was she? Where could she be
found in narrow earth or the vast border-

EDEN

697

land? Was she the florist's friend? Yes,
the florist's friend, but more to me than
to him — more to me than to any other
man. Her eyes resembled his, her lips
showed strength and kindness sweetly
blended. Was she his sister?

I could recall meeting her in a leafy
arcade from which we rowed our light bark
over a clear lake, the bright moon re¬
flected in the blue depths beneath us. Her
name — Oh. that dear name of her's, rich
in lovable suggestion, it came nearer than
his name to my power of speech; it tor¬
tured me with its nearness by coming no
nearer. But from it I remembered the
touch of her hand, the mighty lure of her
deep-brown eyes, her voice gentle and low
with persuasion of music echoed from
hidden bowers.

The inexorable commonplace of the
desert persisted in heartless antipathy to
all these immortal intuitions; “the thee
in me which works behind the veil.”
longed to disengage from dense elements
and fly in search of beloved hopes prime¬
val. The dust from my horses' hoofs rose
up in stifling clouds to attest the unre¬
mitting claims of earth upon me. But
I knew this was no echo of a wild dream,
no caprice of a meaningless fancy; it dwelt
too deep in my incorporeal self, its sway
was too mighty, it was too sweetly teal to
be a dream. My intense desire had found
response in the repository of profound
memories, soul-records of wondrous worlds
long, long ago.

Something broke the mysterious spell,
"it faded into light of common day.” The
sombre nose on the desert's rugged profile
lost form as I approached it, the hoary
oracle disappeared. Dusty and weary,
with the sun sinking low, I saw what I
took to be Scarecrow Springs at the foot
of the mountain. A man with two horses
had already camped there and kindled a
fire.

While my tired animals drank feverish¬
ly of the cool water, the stranger came
down from his fire and held out his hand,

“I'm Dan - .” he said, “I represent

Snide and Smithers.”

I took his hand, but my jaw dropped
as I drew in a long breath of surprise and

bewilderment He was the chief florist!
— the eyes, the mouth, the brows and all,
unless he lacked something of being as tall
as I had seen him. He was the very man
I remembered seeing in the flowers by
the palace wall, or my mind had become
terribly twisted.

“Excuse me, — “ he hesitated, studying
my face, “but I've seen you before.”

“There's no doubt about that,” I an¬
swered, relieved with his assurance of still
being in safe mental balance, “but where
was it?”

“I'd like to know,” he declared, eyeing
me eagerly. “I was in Cuba two years
and I've been in most of the states east
of Texas.”

“I was in the British Isles, and I've
been in most of the states east of Utah,”
I suggested.

“That's mighty strange,” he affirmed,
shaking his head,” for I’ve seen you be¬
fore.”

“I’v'e been in New Mexico a number
of times,” I said, gazing in wonder at his
familiar features.

“I was never in New Mexico till this
trip.” mused the florist, trying to fathom
the mystery.

A continuous fire of questions and an¬
swers, till we got our horses hobbled in
the grass on the hillside, convinced us our
pathways in life had never touched before.
He went to his panniers for frying-pan
and canned stuff, wondering deeply on the
strangeness of our mutual acquaintance.
“But the most remarkable feature of this
whole affair,” he reflected, coming back
to the fire, “is that you remember me as a
florist. It’s been the secret of my life
that I want to raise flowers more than
I want to do anything else. I just simply
can’t get that flower phase of it out of
my mind.”

“I’m as sure I saw you in the flowers
as that I see you by this fire,” I declared,
the reality of it returning in a measure as
I spoke. “I can almost call your name.

but not the name Dan - . What I

can't account for, is that you’re six inches
shorter than you were then.”

"Well.” he pondered, seeming to view
it from my angle, “I could have been

698

IMPROVEMENT ERA

taller and heavier, but for severe sickness
in early childhood. My father stood six
feet or more.”

“Then it’s just the failure of your body
to reach your former size,” I commented.

"But the flowers — ” he persisted. “I
had a little flower bed at home, — ” he
paused, looking down in the flame, and
the kind lines around his resolute lips
seemed to twitch with emotion. “I used
to take Rill and the baby out to look at
and smell the blossoms in the morning and
when the sun went down.” He paused
again. “You see Rill was my wife — she
died — 1 kept the flowers for the little
girl.” He brushed his eyes and looked
away at our horses, just visible in the fall¬
ing shadows. “The little girl was run
over by a team and has to live in a hospi¬
tal, I had no heart to keep the flowers.”

The poor little girl, — a choking lump
came in my throat as I thought of the
motherless cripple, living her cheerless life
in that weary prison. He said she was
ten years old, and he seemed hungry to
tell me all about her, but I must have
turned him at a tangent back to the
flowers.

While he talked and looked at me from
under those familiar brows, I repressed a
strong impulse to put my arm around him
as he had sometime done with me, but
I feared he would misunderstand. He
would have to learn more of the primeval
existence and grasp by slow degrees the
things I had been taught from infancy.
Those principles would console him for
his empty home and the motherless child,
and he might take heart to marry again
instead of thinking in despair that all love
ties have the inevitable parting of death
ahead of them.

Also, and perhaps it impaired the qual¬
ity of my sympathy, I wanted very much
to know about his sister: surely he must
have a sister.

“You see,” he objected, regarding me
from the keen eyes I had recalled that
forenoon in the shadow' of the desert
sentinels, "I was never taught this re¬
markable doctrine; instead, I was poisoned
against it and against your people. If
the practice of your principles gives you

any unusual privileges, you have that ad¬
vantage over me. I really wish I could
believe and accept it, but it would be
mighty hard to make so tremendous a
change.”

The business of Snide and Smithers took
but twenty minutes of our time, and we
reverted at once to our former conversa¬
tion, discussing it with spirit till long
after midnight.

"That idea of my having known Rill
before I met her and married her here,
and then of having her again for my wife
in an endless hereafter; — Oh, I wish I
could grasp and accept that. And the
idea of the little girl suffering all these
things for some wonderful, immortal pur¬
pose: — in a way, that is supremely sweet;
I like it. — but something in me revolts un¬
compromisingly at the very name of
‘Mormonism’.”

My dear florist had been “blinded by
the craftiness of men:” he wanted the
truth under some popular name. But he

had a sister, an only sister, Jane - - .

She was single — twenty-four years of age.
Without being at all impertinent, I as¬
certained that much early in the evening.
Since her mother died she had lived and
traveled with him much of the time, and
right now she awaited his return in
Palude, a little Mexican town the other
side of the mountain.

I could pacify myself with nothing
short of a resolution to accompany him
next to Palude. If it had been to
Chicago, to New York, or to Liverpool, my
resolution to go would have been formed
quite as readily, for I wanted to see
the florist's sister more than I wanted to
see any other person. Yet, for some un¬
known reason, I blamed myself for the
plan, especially since I led the florist to
believe my trip over the mountain was
undertaken for quite another purpose. Still,
he welcomed my company and we devoted
every foot of that long trail to the vital
matters we had considered by our midnight
fire.

At the little adobe hotel in Palude, I
met his sister. That meeting in the stuffy
lobby was the apex of some tremendous
anticipations, and he introduced me with

EDEN

699

flattering compliments. Under other cir¬
cumstances I would have been delighted to
meet such a girl, beautiful, intelligent, re¬
fined, and I hope I betrayed no improper
signs of disappointment, for bitter disap¬
pointment settled upon me as a dark cloud.

Jane - was only a stranger to me.

From nowhere on the palmiest of old mem¬
ories could I find an echo of her voice,
a shadow of her face.

I spent the evening with them in the
hotel, trying to make the best of a very
unpleasant situation. Bidding them good¬
bye next morning. I rode back, to camp
alone at Scarecrow Springs and to make
the three-days’ ride separating me from
Utah. I tried, in the solitude, to crystal¬
lize my conclusions about that wild-goose
chase to Palude, and to solve the per¬
plexing paradox of the florist's only sister
not being the woman I had remembered.

When I reached that part of the trail
where the sombre nose and the face of the
hoary oracle could be seen on the profile
of the desert behind me, the strange mem¬
ories awakened again; the florist's
mysterious friend became real, so real that
the very thought of there being no such
person was too terrible to entertain.

I longed to see the florist again, and,
after reaching home, I wrote him, sending
books and literature on the truths I wanted
so much to have him know, but he made
no reply. Years passed and my meeting
with him became one of the strange rid¬
dles in my memory of experiences.

After ten years. I was registering one
day in a hotel in a busy center of eastern
Colorado and a man's arm fell across my
shoulders. I looked up in surprise at the
face of the florist, my name on his firm
lips. A cloud of gloom hung over him.
his eyes showed sleeplessness and sorrow.
“Come with me.” he said in a hoarse
whisper, hardly allowing me time to give
my suitcase to the clerk before hurrying
me to his car at the curb.

“It’s the little girl," he sighed, smother¬
ing bitter thoughts as he set the machine in
motion, “she’s made a long fight, but it’s
no use; — I’ll soon be alone.”

I said little, though I learned that his
sister had married in the distant East. He

begged pardon for failure to answer my
letters. “I intended to do it,” he ex¬
plained, “but I delayed, and then there
was my stupid prejudice. Oh, we are
strange creatures.”

"We must have broken the speed limit
along those busy streets, and when we
stopped at a hospital he took me with
him as if my presence were as necessary
as his own.

We entered a little chamber with but
one bed where a young woman, thin and
pale, lay silently in white sheets, her
brown hair spread in rich profusion on
the linen pillow; but, from the look of
her pinched, quiet features and closed eyes,
I thought she was dead. The florist
kneeled beside her, taking her thin hand
in his and whispering softly in her ear.

She looked wearily at him, and at me.
Then her eyes opened wide and she bright¬
ened as if to speak. It was the face of
sacred memories — the florist’s friend! —
the woman of the green bower with whom
I crossed the lake, the moon above, the
blue depths beneath.

“Oh, is it really you?” she exclaimed
in soulful voice, raising her wasted hands
towards me in love and delight.

That voice, gentle and low and rich
with irresistable persuasion; the suffering
and anguish of years could not disguise it,
nor could the shrunken flesh and lines of
pain disguise that face.

“I knew you’d come,” she said in a
glad ecstasy, trying to rise, “I dreamed
Papa brought you.”

Arising, the florist took me in his arm
as he used to do in the remote past, draw¬
ing me firmly, yet tenderly, to the bed¬
side of his daughter, “You’re the man she’s
waited for and longed for all this time,"
he whispered with a sob. “Don’t fear
me,” and he placed her slender hand in
mine.

“O Eden!” I groaned, the wondrous
name returning with a rich glory of old
memories: dear scenes and words and hopes
and loves of a radiant long ago came back,
as the light of a world from which I had
wandered afar. The wonderful things of
those worlds cannot be spoken in our

700

IMPROVEMENT ERA

barbarous language, — but tears, poor,
humble tears of love, are our only means
remaining to express the dear memories
when they return. I could but give my
silent tears in renewal of my love pledges
to Eden in the leafy bowers of the other
life.

“I have longed and prayed to see you.”
she sobbed, tightening her feeble grip on
my hand. “In this silent, lonely room
for long days, and months, and years: —
Oh, I wondered why it should be, and I
listened and prayed, and the light broke
into my prison house — I remembered — I
remembered you. I know my soul hath
elsewhere had its setting and cometh from
afar; — you know what I mean. I have
looked wearily for your face, but always,
till now, I have been disappointed.”

'Tve looked for you, Eden, but I had
no idea where to go.”

"I had to see you,” she panted, already
having overdone her weakened powers,
and seeming to feast her eyes upon me, "I
couldn’t go till you came. I don’t know

dlanding, Utah

why — you know why, you understand —
something must be done for me when I’m
gone, I can trust you — you’ll do it.”

“Yes, I know it, Eden, I’ll never rest
till it’s done,” and I caught from her
steady gaze thrilling memories of what
had been, thrilling forecast of things yet
to be.

“Kiss me,” she gasped, drawing me to
her, “I have no wish to stay and suffer
longer — you know what I would tell you
— I’ll tell you when you come — ”

She settled back in exhaustion on the
pillow and closed her eyes, her lips pressed
together in firm satisfaction — the toiling
pulse in her wrist grew still. The florist’s
friend — but more to me than to him!

“I have rebelled long enough,” sobbed
the florist, smoothing her brown hair back
from her white brow, “I believe every
dear word you have told me. Tell me
about it again, that what you do for the
dear little girl, I can do for Rill and be
prepared to enter the joy of the old home
again when this weary pilgrimage is over.”

When You Look at the Stars

We all have vision of worlds afar.

What do you see when you look at a star?
Some gaze only in wonderment
At the studded gems in a firmament:

Some see only the lantern eye

That searches deep where our follies lie;

Some see loneliness, cold despair;

Some see the eyes of a loved one there;

Some see only a candle gleam:

Some see worlds and a Maker’s scheme:

Some see far on the misty way.

Where the star-dust arches from night to day;
Some see only the falling star;

Some gaze on where the fixed orbs are;

Some see hope and its ecstasy:

Some see God in his majesty.

We all have vision of worlds afar.

What do you see when you look at a star?

hdesa. Arizona

Bertha a. Kleinman

The Marry-Go-Round

By Edna Nelson

Sally was the oldest child and, conse¬
quently, the inherent leader in all the
family at fault finding; — in what they
did and what they didn’t, what they had
and what they hadn’t, where they lived
and where they didn’t live.

This night there was a general airing of
grudges at the dinner table, precipitated by
a remark from Sally that she wished they
lived “decently” near town so that she
wouldn’t have to spend half her day get¬
ting there. "Every day I spend exactly
one hour and one-half on my way to and
from school,” she said hotly. “That means
seven and one-half hours every week and
three hundred hours every school year.
Just think what I could do with that time
if I lived near school,” she complained.
"I could study music or get all my lessons
in that time. And then,” she added
haughtily, "it isn’t like there’s anything
out here after you get here. I don’t see
why you ever moved out here, anyway.”

Her younger sister, Mary, of high school
age and aping her smart friends’ senti¬
ments, interposed, “Yes, and I feel so
mortified when I have to tell people we
live way out here. They act as though
we’re pioneering, and ask me if we have
electric lights and street cars and every¬
thing.”

Even young Tom chimed in and said
he’d like to live where there was just about
two square feet of lawn to take care of,
no garden to irrigate and no chickens to
feed. He, too, queried, “Why did you
move out in the sticks, anyway. Mom?”

His mother answered patiently, “We
did it simply for the sake of you children.
We wanted to give you room to play in
and a place in which to develop healthy,
strong bodies. I was lonesome at first,
but I like it now.”

“Well, believe me,” said Sally, “when
I marry. I’m going to live right on Main
street, where I can trot down town two or

three times a day and have all the gayety,
noise and bright lights of the street right
outside my door. Even from the front,
thisi house has no style. Inside, its nice and
rambly and large enough, but who knows
it? When I have a home. I’m going to
have one with a grand, imposing entrance.
And in my dining room,” she said scorn¬
fully, glancing acro.ss the room. “I’m not
going to have an old couch like that relic
under the window there. Nobody has
couches in their dining room, now. I
don’t see why we must.”

“I hope, my dear,” said her father,
“that you’ll be able to gratify all those
whims of yours in your own home, and
I’m sure as far as I’m concerned, you may
arrange your furniture as you wish. But
that couch there, I like. We had it made
especially for you children — very low and
wide and springy so that you could lie
on it by the fire, in the days before the
furnace. And we used to have some de¬
lightful romps on that couch,” he finished
wistfully.

“Just the same,” interjected Sally, “I
think it’s hideous.” She went on in her
reverie, “I’m going to have a lovely little
new apartment, with cunning lamps and
easy chairs and lots of pretty cushions.
We’re going always to dine on lace doilies
on a highly polished table. I don’t see
why people can’t use good taste and style.
It certainly is more stimulating to the ap¬
petite.”

A month later, under a summer moon.
Jim and Sally found they agreed per¬
fectly about an apartment. It was easily
found, engaged, and August found Mr.
and Mrs. James Stillman Payne ensconced
cosily in a small, new apartment with its
very windows giving a view of the daz¬
zling lights of Main street. There were
pretty lamps and pillows in the room,
easy chairs, and Sally and Jim dined in
state.

702

IMPROVEMENT ERA

There appeared, at first, only one flaw
in the arrangement. Inasmuch as the liv¬
ing room acted at night as a bedroom,
there was no adequate space for all of
Jim’s shirts and all of Sally’s frilly things.
The kitchenette cupboards were filled so
soon that there was no room for Sally’s
lovely vases or fancy glassware. The
books they both liked were stored out
of sight at Sally’s mother’s. But they
managed, after a fashion,

A few weeks after they moved in, Sally
had to wash her curtains. She remarked
to her mother, “I didn’t know curtains
had to be laundered so often.”

Her mother smilingly said, “Mine have
been up six months.”

But, after all, it was warm and cosy,
pretty and conveniently near the center of
interest to Sally. She and Jim enjoyed
it until late spring. By June, Sally was,
as she expressed it, “nearly suffocated.”
Accustomed to cool nights in the country,
fresh breezes and airy sleeping porches, she
could not sleep in the hot, stuffy, cramped
quarters. She tossed all night, felt ex¬
hausted by morning and inert all day long.
Her only escape was a daily trip to the
family home. In winter, she had despised
its loneliness, but now, in the spring, with
the apple trees in blossom, with its green¬
ness and growing things, its fragrance
and coolness, it seemed heavenly. Her
sister, Mary, suggested that they might as
well move out, but her mother did not
second the suggestion.

Sally and Jim took it upon themselves
to find a new home. After a fatiguing
week house hunting, after Jim’s office
hours, they found just what they wanted.
It was selected according to their old day¬
dreams because of its air of grandeur and
style and its imposing-looking entrance.
It was let quite cheaply to them because
of being slightly out of repair.

Sally was in ecstasies over its large, high-
ceilinged, cool rooms, its roomy clothes
closets and its remnants of elegance. It
was fun for her and Jim to scatter their
possessions about instead of cramming them
in, and it seemed to them that their souls
expanded accordingly.

After so fiercely hot a summer, the
autumn seemed welcome and cool, but.
one November day, the winter came in
earnest. When Jim came home at night.
Sally met him in the front hall with a
sweater tightly buttoned over her woolen
dress. “Didn’t you nearly freeze, today?”
she asked.

“No, I didn’t notice it much. Why
did you let the furnace fire go out? That’s
why you’re cold.”

“Let it go out?” said Sally wildly. “I’ve
poked all day on the old thing and its
going at its height, now.”

‘Well, that’s that,” said Jim amiably,
“now, we really know why we got it so
cheap.”

By December the high-ceilinged rooms,
great draughty halls, and ill-fitting win¬
dows made them think enviously of their
snug little apartment. That winter they
lived around the fireplace and, as they
expressed it, had “cold backs” all year.

In the spring, young Jim arrived and
all was radiant again. Sally’s young head
became filled with very definite ideas of
plenty of sunshine, fresh air and vitamines.
The baby, she decided, now that the
weather was warm enough, should have
a daily airing and should sleep in the open.
However, she was soon grieving to Jim.
“The porch is so close to the street that
the children wake him as they go past;
and, when he is able to crawl or walk,
where on earth can we let him play?”

With the air of a discoverer, Jim said,
“Let’s look around for a house where he
can have a playground and sandpile; a
house that has a big wide porch with
plenty of sunshine, where its quiet and he
can sleep peacefully.”

“And where he can have some pets,”
added Sally. He’ll love animals in a year
from now.”

“A garden would be kind of fun,” sug¬
gested Jim: “I get fed up on office work
all day.”

Sally and Jim, of course, would have
liked an imposing-looking house, but they
found buying a house quite a serious
financial responsibility and so chose a
roomy, sunny, comfortable house, certainly

THE MARRY-GO-ROUND

703

not stylish looking, but pleasant and at¬
tractive. with a large lawn, gracious shade
trees and flowers, and the house had a
glorious south exposure with windows full
of sunshine.

That night as they ate, from the cup¬
board shelf, a hastily improvised meal, and
took turns with young Jim, who seemed to

have acquired a little colic from the house
hunt, they planned ecstatically.

“Say, Sally,” beamed Jim, "I wonder if
your family would sell us that old wide
couch, to go right under those south win¬
dows. It would be handy for the baby to
lie on during the day, and we could have
a great romp on it in the evening."

The Unlucky Draw

By Elmer A. Graff

It is thrilling to read or to hear of the
hair-raising experiences of others, but to
be the solitary, unwilling explorer of an
uncanny cave, is many times more ex¬
citing.

The incident happened while our
school was on a nature-study walk. Some
of us boys, looking for new worlds to
conquer, pushed on ahead of the less im¬
portant nine-tenths of the school, and were
soon out of their sight.

After gathering flowers, chasing chip¬
munks. lizzards. and rabbits, we finallv
found ourselves at the entrance of a large
hole, into which a pursued rabbit had
evidently disappeared. The opening drop¬
ped abruptly for about six feet, then
formed an angle and extended back into
the ledge and out of our sight. We felt
that our quarry would be at the farther
end of this opening, and decided that one
of us should go after it. About this time
all of us began to act rather strangely —
much like the student who, unprepared,
is seemingly much occupied when the
teacher glances in his or her direction. The
only way to find who should go into the
gaping hole was to draw straws. I took
my last draw: not so much for manner’s
sake, but thinking that surely the unlucky
straw would be drawn before my turn
came; but. alas! I was to go after the
bunny.

Words cannot describe the agony of
that eventful moment when, with legs
dangling. I dropped the remaining few
feet to the bottom of the shallow shaft.
Before looking into the tunnel-like open¬
ing. I looked up to be perfectly sure that

the fellows were really close to the edge.
Then I stooped and looked into the open¬
ing ahead of me. There is no word or
group of words in the English language
which could describe my feelings when I
looked — not into the eyes of my expected
prisoner — but into the gaping sockets of
a human skeleton. I could not talk, not
even whisper, but I must have looked like
a ghost, for, on turning my face up to call
for help, the four luckiest boys in the
world turned and fled at full speed.

It would be useless even to attempt to
describe my untold misery as I dug my
bare toes into the little declivities in the
sides of that terrible hole. By the time
I had released myself from my predica¬
ment, my brave comrades had made them¬
selves heard or seen, and the teacher
was running rapidly towards them. A
few minutes later I stammered out the
findings of my recent conquest. Mr.

H - then proceeded to find out the

truth or falsity of my statement, and dis¬
covered the skeleton of an Indian, which
was covered with two decayed, rat-eaten
blankets. An old saddle and rusty rifle
were lying beside the remains.

With great care we succeeded in re¬
moving the entire contents of the cave
and took them home with us. Of course.
I was declared the discoverer and told my
story for the hundredth time to many
eager listeners. To say that my fear had
now turned to a feeling of very great im¬
portance, is not belittling the situation: for
I was proud, very proud, to have be¬
come so important while yet only a young
man.

Provo, Utah

Messages fom the Missions

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14.)

New South Wales Annual Conference

An inspirational annual event in the
New South Wales district, of the Australian
mission, was the conference held in the
Enmore chapel, Sunday, January 29. at
which President and Sister Charles H.
Hyde were in attendance. President Hyde
delivered a powerful address on the sub¬
ject of "The Holy Ghost.’’ which was
enjoyed and appreciated by all present.
Approximately three hundred persons at¬

tended the three meetings of the confer¬
ence, many of them being friends and
investigators. We are now engaged in
erecting a new chapel in Bankstown. a
suburb of Sydney: the foundation stone
was laid on January 28. We are en¬
couraged with the progress of the work in
this part of the Lord’s vineyard — Wende'.t
L. Cottrell, district president.

Elders of New South Wales District, Australia

Front row, left to right: S. Ellwood Nebeter, mission secretary; Caroline S. Hyde,
president of mission Relief Societies; Mission President Charles H. Hyde; Wendell L. Cottrell,
president New South Wales district, all of Salt Lake City, Utah. Back row; Lowell A.
Brown, Lehi, Utah; J. Earl Brown, Lchi, Utah; Edgar T. Henderson, Pocatello, Idaho:
L. Earl Manwaring, Provo, Utah.

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS

705

Annual Convention in South Africa

At the close of 1927, the missionaries of
the South African mission met in their
regular annual general convention. The
principal theme of the meetings was,
"Greater Efficiency in Missionary Labors."
President Samuel Martin directed the acti¬

vities. with the willing support and co¬
operation of all present. Our association
with one another at the convention will
make December 15 to 27 ever a period of
pleasant recollection. — Theodore R. Mar¬
tin, mission secretary.

Elders of the South African Mission

Seated, in front: Alfred J. Martin and Frank A. Martin. Ogden. Utah. Front row. left to
right: Paul A. Thorn (released). Springville. Utah: Leo R. Jenson (released). Salt Lake
City: Mission President Samuel Martin. Clara A. Martin. Ogden. Utah; \Vm. Earl Hutchings
(released). Springville. Utah; Noel G. Knight. Lehi. Utah, president of Cape district: Reed
H. Beckstead. Sandy. Utah, president Port Elizabeth district. Second row: Theodore R.
Martin. Ogden. Utah, mission secretary: \Vm. B. Holland. Rigby. Idaho, president Kim¬
berley district; Oral N. Beckstead. Preston. Idaho, president Natal district; Eoyal I.. Smith.
Cardston. Canada, president Bloemfontein district: R. Earl Madsen. Ephraim. Utah, pres¬
ident East London district: Marion L. Allred. Ephraim. Utah, president Transvaal district:
Rex C. Ellsworth. Safford. Arizona: Ray Wm. Ellsworth. Safford. Arizona: Wells L.
Evans, Woods Cross, Utah. Back row: O. Layton Alldredge. Mtigna. Utah: Leroy H.
Duncan. Centerville. Utah: Sheldon R. Free. Salt Lake City; Charles W. Larson. Centerville.
Utah: Bertram J. Glynn. Karibib. Southwest Africa.

Book of Mor.mon in Place of Tracts

The elders of the East Montana dis- are working earnestly to convey the gospel
trict, of the Northcentral States mission, message effectively, and are- using the Book

706

IMPROVEMENT ERA

of Mormon in place of tracts and small
pamphlets. This method has proved very
successful, and resulted in the placing of
429 copies of this sacred volume in the
homes of the people between their Decem¬
ber and March conferences. In the month
of December alone, Elder A, N, Redding,
of Los Angeles, California, disposed of
155 Books of Mormon, while Elder Clyde
Ritchie, of Charleston, Utah, placed 150

copies. The Saints also were active in this
work, and were successful in placing 75
copies of the Book to good advantage.
Two of the elders are laboring among the
Lamanite people in Wolf Point, Montana,
and report encouragement in their efforts.
The elders of the district hold cottage
meetings every night of the week, with
from forty to fifty in attendance.

Top row. left to right: Geo. W. Flamm, president Billings branch: A. N. Redding, district
president, released: John G, Allred, president Northcentral States mission: Clyde Ritchie,
district president: Harold L. Ward. Bottom row: Harvey J. Robbins, R. D. Anderson,
Robert Hansen, Eli M. Tracy, president Tyler branch, Alton C. Bright.

Malmo District Holds Conference

The Malmo district of the Swedish mis¬
sion held their spring conference March
17 to 20, with all the meetings well at¬
tended by both Saints and investigators.
The program rendered by the Sunday
School made a favorable impression on
friends and members alike. At the Sun¬
day evening meeting. President Hulterstrom
delivered an inspiring sermon on the Ar¬

ticles of Faith, and strong testimonies were
borne by the elders. The prospects are
bright for continued progress in this dis¬
trict. The elders are looking forward with
keen anticipation to summer work in the
country. We appreciate the valuable in¬
formation contained in the Era: we find it
a great help to us in our labors. — Lloyd O.
Stohl.

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS

707

Missionaries of the Malmo District, Sweden
Sitting, left to right: Signe L. Hulterstrom, president of mission Relief Societies and writer
of the Nordstjatnan; Eva Carlson, Lyckeby, Sweden; Gideon N. Hulterstrom, mission
president; Heber J. Olson, district president, Virginia, Idaho. Standing: Oscar Olson,
Midvale, Utah; Edwin S, Pearson, Salt Lake City; Lloyd O. Stohl, Salt Lake City,

Among the Wonders of Switzerland

Elders of the Berne District, left to right: George J. Ross, Louis M. Burgener, district
president: Gordon B. Christensen, Kenneth Huber

Alt matters pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood in this department are prepared under the
direction of the Presiding Bishopric.

Fathers and Sons’ Outing

We are now approaching the season of
the year when we begin to plan our
Fathers and Sons’ outing. This outing
takes us away in groups from our homes
where fathers may watch their own sons,
and, through observing the actions of his
neighbor’s sons, make comparison. Such
gatherings afford a most wonderful op¬
portunity to become acquainted with our
boys’ characters and to discover their
weaknesses. Generally, such trips are en¬
joyed only once a year; few are privileged
to go oftener. Because of this fact we
sometimes fail to make the best of our ad¬
vantage — to apply the lessons learned dur¬
ing our outing in follow-up work, day
by day, throughout the year.

The present plan, recommended by the
General Authorities of the Church, and
which provides for gospel study on the
Sabbath morning and for priesthood acti¬
vities each Tuesday evening, offers an op¬
portunity for fathers and sons to be to¬
gether on each of these occasions. A
father may discuss with his children the
lessons for the day; help them prepare their
minds for the work before them; he can
go to Sabbath School with them; and on
the way home, and perhaps at home, can
question them concerning the work. This
not only gives the father an opportunity
to refresh his memory concerning the gos¬

pel doctrine taught, but provides an ex¬
cellent opportunity to become familiar with
his children’s thoughts and ideas. He
can then help them to solve problems that
may not have been made clear to them
during the class period.

This same opportunity comes in the
work outlined for the Priesthood-M. I. A.
gatherings on Tuesday evening. Unless
there comes into our lives an opportunity
to apply the principles of the gospel
learned, it means very little to us, for,
after all, salvation does not come alone
through having a knowledge of the work
of the Lord, but through our ability to
apply that knowledge to daily service for
ourselves and our fellow-men. Because
of our meeting together often in the ca¬
pacity of class work, we are able to study
and discuss these problems, gaining in our
understanding of Church doctrine and dis¬
cipline, And these provide activities which
enable all to render a valuable service in
the Church for themselves and their neigh¬
bors.

We hope that, with the coming of the
summer months, those who are charged
with the guidance of the Aaronic Priest¬
hood quorums will keep this thought in
mind, and see that there is no break in
the priesthood activities during this time.

Field Notes

From the London {England) Daily
Mail, April 1 6 — Boy “Mormon’s” Ser¬
mon — Deacon Jim Hill, Aged 13: Thir¬
teen-year-old Deacon Jim Hill was the
youngest preacher at a “Mormon” confer¬
ence held yesterday at the Surrey Masonic
Hall, in Camberwell New-road, S. E.

He sat on the platform, among nearly
thirty other “Mormons,” and was con¬
spicuous by his bare knees and short
trousers.

Deacon Jim Hill had the clearest voice,
and of all the London “Mormons” who
preached sermons on the Fourth Article
of Faith, his was the most easily and con¬
vincingly delivered. Unlike most of the
others, he did not refer to his notes once.

Jim Hill is regarded as a promising Lat¬
ter-day Saint, and is already well on the
way to a Priesthood which will entitle him
to baptize converts.

The Primary Jubilee

The General Superintendency and
Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Im¬
provement Association express congratula¬
tions to the Primary Association of the
Church on having attained its fiftieth an¬
niversary; and we sincerely hope that the
celebration of their jubilee will be a de¬
lightful occasion to them.

We also rejoice in the accomplishments
of the fifty years that have passed. There
is a very close tie between the Mutual
Improvement Associations and the Pri¬
mary; indeed, we have come to look upon
the Primary as operating in almost identic¬
ally the same field as the Mutuals; their
service, however, is with the children un¬
der Mutual age, but doing very much the
same class of work, and, in reality, they
are the Junior M. I. A. They are pre¬
paring the hosts of young boys and girls
in the Church to come into the Mutual

Improvement Associations for a continua¬
tion of their activity in the field of leisure
time and recreation.

Therefore, we not only extend to them
our congratulations, but assurances of our
hearty cooperation with them in helping
to perform this great service for the
Church. May the Lord bless them in the
coming years that they may ever grow and
increase in good works, and in the proper
application, through the Spirit of the Lord,
of this the finest program that has been
devised by inspired women in the field
assigned to them by the General Authori¬
ties of the Church.

George Albert Smith,
Richard R. Lyman,

Melvin J, Ballard,

General Superintendency

Y. M. M. I. A.

M. I. A. June Conference

Our coming annual M. 1. A. conference,
to be held in Salt Lake City June 8, 9 and
10, is expected to be one of the most im¬
portant gatherings in the history of our
organization. The great interest taken
throughout the Church in the new Priest-
hood-M. 1. A. Plan and the new organiza¬

tion of stake and ward leaders with their
duties, etc., is claiming the attention of
the entire organization.

We hope to meet as many delegates as
possible from the respective stakes and
wards of the Church.

TENTATIVE PROGRAM

Friday, June 8

Conference Theme: — "The Abundant Life Through the Wholesome Use of Leisure Time.”

8 ;00 — 8 :45 a. m.

Registration and Community Singing
(Tabernacle Grounds and Assembly Hall) .

9:00—10:30 a. m.

Joint M. I. A. Meeting:

1. Greetings.

2. The new slogan.

3. New Priesthood-M. I. A. Plan.

4. New M. I. A. Organization Plan.

10:30 — 12 a. m.

Department Meetings :

1. Executive Officers (joint) (Assembly
Hall) .

2. Music Directors (joint) (Y. L. Re¬
ception Rooms) .

3. Community Activity Committee (joint)
(Smith Memorial).

4. Adult Committee (joint) (Medical Arts
Bldg.).

710

IMPROVEMENT ERA

5. M Men and Gleaners (joint) (Top
Floor Bishop's Bldg.).

6. Older Scouts and Boy Scouts (Top
Floor Bureau of Information).

7. Junior Girls (17th ward).

8. Bee-Hive Girls (14th ward).

12:00 Noon

M Men’s Banquet.

Judges' Luncheon.

2 :00 p. m.

Department Meetings:

1 . Executive Officers to visit other depart¬
ments.

2. Music Directors to visit other depart¬
ments.

3. Community Activity Committee (joint)
(Smith Memorial).

4. Adult Committee (joint) (Medical Arts
Bldg.) .

5. M Men (4th Floor Bishop’s Bldg.).

6. Gleaners (Whitney Hall) .

7. Older Scouts and Boy Scouts (Top
Floor Bureau of Information).

8. Junior Girls (17th ward).

9. Bee-Hive Girls (14th ward).

5:30 — 11:00 p. m.

Saltair:

Bathing and Luncheon (5:30 — 7 p. m.).
Contest Dancing (7:00 — 8 p. m.).
General Entertainment (8:00 — 11 p. m.).
Demonstration of new Contest Dance dur¬
ing intermission.

Saturday. June 9

8 :30 — 9 :00 a. m.

Community Singing.

9:00—10:30 a. m.

Demonstration of the M. I. A. in action:
Summary of:

1 . The Book.

2. The Project.

3. The Slogan.

4. Brief summary of program.
(Organization, equipment, leadership should

be given a place in the presentation) .

12:15 p. m.

Superintendents’ and Presidents’ Luncheon.

2:00—3:30 p. m.

Contests (Continued) :

1. Drama.

2. Male Chorus.

3. Ladies' Chorus.

4. Instrumental Trio.

8 :00 p. m.

10:30—12:00 a. m.

Contests :

1 . Drama.

2. M Men’s Public Speaking.

3. Gleaner Girls’ Public Speaking.

4. M Men’s Quartettes.

Finals in Contests (Tabernacle) :

1 . Contest events in Music.

2. Winners in Public Speaking.

3. Awarding of Medals.

4. Announcing of next year’s contest events.

Sunday, June 10
8:30 a. m.

"The Abundant Life Through the Wholesome Use of Leisure Time.’’
2.00 p. m.

General Meeting under direction of First Presidency.

7:00 p. m.

Joint M. 1. A. Meeting.

Climax Reached in Book of Mormon Activities

The regular work of the Maricopa stake
M. I. A. for this season was completed,
and the climax to their Book of Mormon
activities reached, with their recent pres¬
entation of a most interesting Book of
Mormon program, in which all the wards
of the stake participated. One of the
most important parts of the program was
a contest in the writing of poems and
stories based on the theme of the evening.

and there were many contestants from the
various ward organizations. Arthur J.
Barnes, of the Phoenix First ward, won
first place with his poem, “The Book of
Mormon.” A pageant, tableaux (in which
some real Lamanites took part), “Glean¬
ings” from the Book of Mormon, by
Gleaners and M Men, and special musical
numbers were features of the evening.

MUTUAL WORK

711

New Superintendents

Arthur Wiscombc, of Roosevelt, Utah,
was set apart on May 6, 1928, as super¬
intendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. in the
Roosevelt stake, succeeding C. Fred Whal-
quist, honorably released.

Robert H. Sainsbury, St. Johns, Ari¬
zona. is the new superintendent of the
Y. M. M. I. A. in the St. John stake, vice
Albert F. Anderson.

A Utah Scout in the U. S. Army Air Service
By Joseph E. Sandborn, Cressy Field, California
“Look at it!” “Forty-five seconds!” went to Fort McDowell. California.
“Swell pusher!” “Whoop, there she It seemed a veritable prison at first.

goes!” Such were
the cries as the model
pusher plane
iwooped, having lost
its speed, only to
straighten out and
continue its flight
or glide until the
frame touched the
ground.

A group of men
in jumpers and uni¬
forms of the Army
Air Service had been
timing the model on
its first flight. The proud owner and
builder stood close by. his eyes sparkling,
his face beaming, giving every sign of
contentment.

Four months before, Lynn Albert San¬
born, pampered son of two doting par¬
ents, had joined the service. He was trying
out his wings, like a fledgling bird, for
the first time.

Bert had belonged to all the organ¬
izations for young men in the “Mormon”
Church. He had also been an assistant
scoutmaster of Troop 71. a member of the
145th Field Artillery, National Guard, and
a member of the American Radio Relay
League. He had studied radio transmission
in his own home-equipped, amateur
station.

He had gone from Salt Lake City to
Portland, where he stayed with friends
for two weeks, before the idea of join¬
ing the army came to him. A month’s
waiting at Vancouver Barracks for dis¬
charge papers from the Utah National
Guard came next. The length of time
bothered him little, for numerous rides
in aeroplanes kept the routine from be¬
coming tiresome. And then — down he

LIEUTENANT KELLY'S PLANE

Cressy Field, California

at

where all recruits are
broken in by exhaus¬
tive work. Up at
5:30, chow, two and
a half hours' drill,
chow, three hours at
the end of a pick and
shovel, chow, show,
lights out at 9:00 p.
m., up at 5 : 30 a. m.,
chow, drill — , rou¬
tine. Every six days
K. P., where he had
to wash dishes, etc.,
for twenty-two men.
and sometimes there were as many as ten
chows a day. That terminated at the end
of one month, when they sent him to
Cressy Field. There he became an official
member of the Ninth Observation Squad¬
ron. The fourth night there he did guard
duty. “Sunny” California sihowed itself
in its true light. Rain and fog, plenty of
both, — and this was “sunny” California.

A slip, a sharp wrench, and he found
out what it was to be confined to quarters
and have to use crutches. Three weeks
of limping and he was installed in the
Radio Department. The planes at the
field carrying radio sending and receiving
sets had made necessary a radio service
department, and there was need ot oper¬
ators for land and air.

December came with an increase in pay.
promotion and the haunting thought that
Christmas had to be attended to. He
started building gliders in his spare time at
the hill station, which was now in his
charge. Building model.s. buying presents,
and cards, sending them away, and testing
his models when completed, kept him busy
until Christmas, and with Christmas came

712

IMPROVEMENT ERA

rain, — and that reminded him that he was
in "sunny” California.

During the holidays, he worked hard
on his R. O. G. outdoor pusher. His
work completed, he was testing it out on
this day, January 2, 1928.

Bert stepped off the distance and found
it had gone a hundred yards. Recover¬
ing the pusher, he walked back to where
Lieutenant Marriner was standing.

"That was well worth seeing,” said the
officer. And then, "If she covered 100
yards with 125 turns, how far will she
go with the full 850 turns?” Try it,
Sanborn.”

"The 850 turns! Yes, sir. But I’ve
a hunch that breeze will cause trouble.”

And putting his words into action, Bert
immediately began winding up the left
propeller, while Jack Pratt, a member of
the radio department, wound up the right.

Then holding both props with his
hands, and the pusher shoulder high, he
thrust it out and up at the word of
Lieutenant Marriner who was timing it.

The model rose fast, and the whine
of the propellers was brought down to
them by the breeze.

"Fifteen seconds.”

LFp, up. still climbing, 15-20 feet now.

"Thirty seconds.”

Climbing yet ascending, seemingly, to
the very clouds. It would shiver and
swoop now, the breeze was fairly strong.

The pusher was now thirty feet.

"Forty-five seconds.”

Still climbing, but not so fast.

"One minute.”

The propellers are still turning over.

"One minute and twenty seconds.”

Ah! what was that. The wind, with
a sudden blast, has struck and turned
the pusher’s nose towards the bay. The
propellers are dead. Up only forty feet.

“One minute and thirty seconds.”

Will it drop quickly and land safely
or will it ride on the wings of the wind
out over the bay to be lost? There it
swoops. Twenty-five feet.

"Two minutes.”

Nobody can do anything, they stand
there — it glides. It is over the bay now.

“Two minutes, thirty seconds.”

Still going, ten feet now.

“Three minutes.”

A slight splash and the model is lost
forever. Eight days’ work, one and a-half
dollars cost, and an extra fine model; not
wasted, but lost. Bert had gained ex¬
perience, respect, and his own confidence;
nothing wasted.

There he stood, happy and contented
in the thought that he had found some¬
thing that he liked — radio and model
aviation.

A smile on his face, he looked off in
the distance, thinking of — the future.

For You

A red fez cap is colorful
Against a sky-blue sea;

But more than this are feelings
That well up deep in me.

A little fishing boat of pink,

A tan sail patched in grey,

A sea as green as malachite,

A wish to live each day!

Dear God, you’ve made such beauty.
What can I say or do?

I feel so small to all you’ve made —
Ah, might I live for you!

Hartford, Conn.

Caroline Parker Smith

MUTUAL WORK

713

Y. M. M. I. A. Statistical Report, April, 1928

STAKE

Should be

Earolled

No. Wards ||

No. Wards Reporting

Offir rs and Class

Leaders Enrollment

Advanced Senior

Enrollment

Senior

Enrollment

Advanced Junior

Enrollment

Junior

Enrollment

Total

Officers and CUm

Leaders Attendance

Advanced Senior

Attendance

Senior

Attendance

Advanced Junior

Attendance

Junior

Attendance

o

h

760

14

9

96

165

141

20

1 97

619

43

46

46

76

211

Box Elder _

557

13

13

129

235

256

36

236

892

90

128

120

25

167

530

Cottonwood _

747

10

10

122

160

190

40

320

832

116

416

180

36

260

1008

Deseret . .

521

12

11

114

216

165

20

194

709

80

115

103

16

116

430

Ensign .. _ ..

960

8

8

80

304

237

52

320

993

70

211

117

33

234

665

Gunnison _

279

7

7

63

89

80

_

102

335

47

48

44

_

65

204

Liberty _

1435

12

12

131

294

290

166

397

1278

115

193

160

91

285

844

344

8

5

38

72

93

86

289

28

34

45

67

174

North Davis _ _

461

7

7

61

66

121

13

170

431

48

31

46

5

105

235

North Weber _ ^ _

640

14

12

78

58

167

17

204

524

57

41

67

10

117

292

Ogden _

876

1 1

1 1

97

140

220

82

324

863

68

116

108

40

190

522

Oquirrh _

483

6

4

47

64

83

26

104

324

34

33

30

10

58

165

Pioneer . .

746

10

8

69

109

131

81

153

543

47

58

63

37

81

286

Roosevelt _ _

334

11

7

47

72

43

20

62

244

34

47

26

8

39

154

South Davis . . . .

526

8

8

66

145

168

232

611

56

93

96

177

422

South Sevier _

333

8

3

24

33

21

9

56

143

13

7

7

6

23

56

Uintah . .

415

10

7

53

87

95

48

129

412

43

48

81

45

74

291

Weber . . .

712

9

7

60

85

103

23

175

446

45

38

54

19

139

295

West Jordan - .

450

7

5

61

105

161

26

164

517

30

33

74

20

102

259

Burley _ _

341

9

7

46

118

87

13

88

352

38

33

45

9

52

177

Franklin

434

1 1

11

95

126

119

13

174

527

66

66

70

7

13

222

Fremont . .

662

14

14

121

211

172

21

189

714

88

137

103

11

94

433

Idaho . . .

146

7

6

57

37

22

10

51

177

32

18

1 1

6

38

105

Minidoka _ _

244

8

4

29

59

48

9

57

202

25

23

21

5

26

100

516

12

7

79

1 1 1

73

1

63

367

56

102

47

41

260

318

9

7

70

78

75

98

321

42

32| 30

43

147

216

5

4

33

80

52

30

195

25

37i 31

27

120

377

10

8

54

88

66

I

1 5 61 264

36

56i 48

35

175

Big Horn - .

318

6

2

42

91

89

1...

62

284

11

41 63

2

80

420

5

9

85

99

226

Il60

570

67

7:

145

121

406

Maricopa . . . -

450

8

8

72

92

106

|197

467

53

61

1 69

146

329

37f

1(

1C

65

132

101

12

1 58

368

47

117 5C

!

34

256

Snowflake _ _ _

300

1 1

6

35

76

62

27

1 53

253

25

35

32

2C

27

139

Woodruff . .

325

1 6

6

1 47

66

61

9

1 51

23^

32

36 21

35

129

California Mission

510 25

20

Il59

25'^

141

1 181178

750

109

|l68| 96

12

100

485

German-Austrian Mis.

721|40|40I302I313

60

28!

1 963

22!

13121 55

1243

838

Western States Mission

1141

1 5

1 34 26

77

1 17

5^

20!

25

101 72

11 3^

152

N. W. States Mission

135

111

1 5

1 31

1 55

78

1 19

1 192

1 32

1 34| 42

c

1 9

126

Y. M. M. I. A. Efficiency Report, April, 1928

714

IMPROVEMENT ERA

STAKE

a

M

e

a

Average Attendance

Recreation

Scout Work

M Men

Reading Book of

Mormon

e

s

LL

Monthly Stake and

Ward Off. Meeting

Ward Off. Meeting

Total

Deseret - _ - -

10

9

10

10

8

8

10

10

9

8

92

Ensign .

10

10

10

10

10

8

9

7

10

10

94

Gunnison _

10

9

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

99

Liberty _ „ -

9

10

10

10

10

8

10

10

10

10

97

Millard - - - _ -

8

9

10

7

5

5

7

8

10

10

79

North Davis _ _

9

8

9

9

7

4

9

10

10

7

82

North Weber .. _ _

8

8

5

6

5

8

9

10

9

9

77

Ogden _ _

10

9

9

10

10

8

10

9

10

10

95

Oquirrh _ . - .

7

8

10

10

10

5

6

10

10

10

91

Pioneer _

7

8

10

8

9

7

7

6

10

10

82

Roosevelt _

7

9

4

1

3

5

5

5

6

5

50

South Davis . _

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

100

South Sevier _

4

6

4

4

3

3

3

6

3

1

37

Uintah _ _ —

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

100

Weber _ _

6

10

10

6

8

8

8

8

10

10

84

West Jordan _

10

8

9

10

10

6

8

7

10

8

86

Burley _

10

8

6

8

4

6

8

7

7

4

68

Franklin _

10

6

9

8

8

10

9

9

10

9

88

Fremont _ _ _

10

9

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

99

Idaho _ - _ _

10

9

10

7

6

7

9

9

10

10

87

Minidoka .

8

7

5

4

5

4

3

5

5

4

50

Rigby - - -

7

10

6

4

6

5

9

8

9

6

70

Shelley _ _ .

10

7

10

9

9

7

10

9

9

10

90

Twin Falls . . .

9

9

10

6

7

6

8

7

8

8

78

Yellowstone .

7

10

7

6

5

8

8

10

10

8

79

Big Horn - - -

9

4

3

3

3

2

3

2

3

2

34

Los Angeles _

10

10

10

10

10

8

10

8

10

10

96

Maricopa - - -

10

10

10

10

10

8

10

10

10

10

98

San Francisco - - - _ —

10

10

9

4

8

9

6

8

9

9

82

Snowflake . .

8

8

5

4

4

4

5

10

6

4

58

Woodruff _ -

7

8

10

10

6

6

7

10

7

8

79

California Mission _ _

10

10

8

8

8

9

9

9

10

7

88

German-Austrian Mission _

10

10

7

6

3

9

2

3

8

58

Western States Mission

10

10

7

6

10

9

9

7

3

71

Northwestern States Mission..

10

10

8

5

6

8

9

8

10

10

84

Has the Church a Vision?

The longer I live the more I am convinced that the Church for today and for the
future is the Church of the Heavenly Vision. And I want to ask; Have we seen any¬
thing? * * * Have you ever "beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten

of the Father, full of grace and truth”? Are we still just going around exploring
in the neighborhood of a Syrian grave, to see if we can reconstruct a civilization of
two thousand years' ago? Or have we seen the Lord, and are our own lives trans¬
figured and transformed by the sight? For, for the days that are to come, the
tremendous days of grave but glorious opportunity that are before us, I am confident
in my own mind that the one thing that our land and the world is waiting for is the
recovery of the vision of the glorious, living Christ for all mankind. And if there is
any far-off resemblance of us to Him, and any sheen that reflects His glory, the world
will see it and take knowledge of it and be convinced thereby. For the one uncon¬
querable thing today is still the nobility of prayer, the sovereignty of purity, and the
glory of self-surrender, and the majesty of "the powers of the world to come.” — From
The Christian World Pulpit, quoted in the Millennial Star.

Against War. The British house of
lords, on May 15. 1928, unanimously
endorsed Secretary Kellogg’s proposition
to outlaw war. The vote was taken on
a resolution introduced by Lord Reading,
urging the government to accept the Amer¬
ican plan. He said in part: "America has
made the greatest step forward toward
peace that has yet been taken. We should
have no hesitation in following — there
should not be room for thinking that there
is hesitation in our acceptance of a treaty
so simple and yet so wide and comprehen¬
sive.” Another who spoke in favor of un¬
compromising acceptance of the American
plan, was the Archbishop of Canterbury.
"The proposal stands out as the most re¬
markable in the history of civilization," he
declared. Sir Austen Chamberlain, the for¬
eign minister, has already, in the House of
Commons, announced that the government
has accepted the American plan "in prin¬
ciple”.

Flood Control. President Coolidge, on
May 15, 1928, signed the Mississippi
river flood control bill, thereby transfer¬
ring to the federal government the task
of curbing the menace of the flood waters
of that great river. Heretofore the federal
government and the states interested have
cooperated in an effort to control the
Mississippi: but as a result of the disastrous
flood of a year ago congress decided to
make the government alone responsible.
It took congress five months to formulate
a bill acceptable to all. It was, possibly,
the greatest problem ever solved by our
legislative assembly.

Mrs. Sarah Jenne Cannon, wife of the
late President George Q. Cannon, passed
away at the home of their son Preston,
at Glendale, Cal., where she has lived
the last few years. Last June Mrs. Cannon
fell and injured her hip seriously. She has
not been able to walk since then, but
her cheerful disposition has never failed
her. Mrs. Cannon was born Sept. 1 1, 1839,
in Camden. Canada, and came with her
parents to Nauvoo before the death of the

Prophet Joseph. She remembered having
seen the prophet, as he preached to the peo¬
ple. In 1848 she came to the Salt Lake
valley, having walked all the way from the
Missouri river. On April 1 1, 1858, she be¬
came the wife of George Q. Cannon, and
immediately moved to Fillmore before the
entrance of Johnston’s army into the Salt
Lake valley. When the return was being
made to Salt Lake City, Elder Cannon, who
was in charge of the printing press of
The Deseret News, was met at Payson
by a messenger from President Young
with news that he was called on a mission.
Within an hour he was on his way leav¬
ing the young wife literally by the road¬
side. During the four years mission of
her husband she supported herself and
her child. Frank J., later to be the first
senator from the state of Utah.

Her late years have been the peaceful
sunset of an active life. In the mild
climate of beautiful Glendale she has en¬
joyed her days of waiting for the last
call. Her assurance of the hereafter and
meeting with her loved ones was perfect.
Telegrams of love came from her chil¬
dren on the morning of Mother’s day.
They were read to her. She understood
them and a few moments later she fell
serene and tranquil into the sleep of death.
She is survived by all her seven chil¬
dren: Frank J., Angus J., Hugh J. Cannon,
Mrs. Rosannah C. Irvine, Joseph J., Pres¬
ton J. and Karl Q. Cannon. She also
leaves 50 other descendants, including
six great-great-grandchildren.

Turks Ordered to Take Family Names.
Reports from Angora. May 12, 1928,
state that an act requiring the people to
adopt family names is nearing passage by
the Assembly. Consequently the Turks
are wondering what names to take. The
lack of such names has caused infinite
confusion, as thousands call themselves the
one same name, generally Mustapha or Fa¬
tima. Mustapha Kemal Pasha. Turkey’s
president, himself, was born simple Musta¬
pha. He gained the Kemal when a school

716

IMPROVEMENT ERA

teacher, impressed with his literary ability,
added the name of Turkey’s greatest writer,
Namick Kemal.

The American Peace Society began its
centennial celebration at Cleveland, Ohio,
May 1 1, 1928, with a large attendance.
This society was organized in 1828 by
Wm. Ladd, of Maine, and David Low
Dodge, of New York. It is non-sectarian
and non-political. At its centennial con¬
gress it went on record as recognizing the
inherent right of nations to arm for self-
defense, but called upon all governments
to see the moral obligation of outlawing
war as an instrument of national policy.
At the same session, the congress denied
the “moral responsibility” of any govern¬
ment to protect the foreign investments
of its nationals in countries “notoriously
unsettled and disturbed.” Twenty years
ago the American Peace Society was rep¬
resented in Utah by an active branch,
sponsored by Governor John C. Cutler,
and supported by men and women of all
churches.

War without a Declaration of War.
Severe fighting between Japanese troops
and forces of the Chinese Nationalists was
repKsrted from Tokio, May 7. Japan is
preparing an invasion of Chinese terri¬
tory. Twenty transports are ready to
carry 20,000 Japanese troops to Tsingtao.
From Pekin it is reported that the
warring Chinese factions are inclined to
unite against Japan, and that arrangements
are being made for a complete boycott of
Japanese products. The Nationalist gov¬
ernment has ordered the continuance of the
northern campaign despite the Japanese
complication. It has appealed for sym¬
pathy from other nations, and has tele¬
graphed Hunan and Hupeh provinces to
send heavy reinforcements north.

Captain Wilkins flies over the Arctic
Ocean. Word was received in London,
April 21, 1928, that Captain George H.
Wilkins, the Arctic explorer, and his com¬
panion, Eielson, had landed at the Spitz-
bergen radio station, completing their
flight across the Polar regions from Point
Barrow, Alaska. They had first landed at
an uninhabited island. Doedmansoeia,
where they were laid up for five days

by bad weather. The explorers reached
Spitzbergen after 21^ hours actual flying.
They passed over a great deal of unex¬
plored territory but saw no sign of any
islands or land anywhere. Before leaving
for Point Barrow, Wilkins said his course
would lie about 300 miles to the south of
the North pole, so that he could travese
a section of the globe never before seen by
man. A thirty-day food supply was taken
by the explorers in case they should be
forced down far from civilization. After
that, if they were lost, they had intended
to depend on their rifles for a food supply
while they “footed it” back to land. Eiel¬
son, who piloted the plane, was fitted for
the work by years of flying in Alaska,
where he flew the first airmail plane.

Transatlantic flyers officially welcomed
to Washington, D. C. The German-Irish
crew of the Transatlantic plane Bremen —
Baron von Huenefeld, Captain Koehl and
Major Fitzmaurice — were officially re¬
ceived in Washington, D, C-, May 2 1928.
They were acclaimed by thousands when
they arrived at Bolling field and, later,
dined at the White House. They were
decorated with distinguished flying crosses
by President Coolidge and warmly received
by senators and representatives when they
reached the capitol. From the White
House luncheon, the fliers were taken to
Arlington National cemetery, where they
laid wreaths on the tomb of the Unknown
Soldier. In the midst of all the bustle
they confirmed reports of their plans for
a westward flight to include visits to
Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis
and Ottawa, Ont., before they return to
Europe as they came — by air. The
three aviators left Baldonnel, Ireland,
April 12, intending to land at the
Mitchell field. New York. For some
time they were lost to the outside world,
and, when they were overdue, fears were
felt for their safety. But then word came
from the little island, Greenly Island, off
Labrador, that they had landed there. They
had spent 36 hours on the way and been
driven out of their course by adverse wind
and in a dense fog. In landing, their
plane was very much damaged. A re¬
lief expedition under the direction of

PASSING EVENTS

717

Captain Floyd Bennett, who, however,
passed away at Quebec, Canada, was sent
to Greenly Island, and the Transatlantic
aviators proceeded to New York and
Washington in other planes. The three
visitors were extremely lucky in landing
on an island where they could find shelter
in a lighthouse. If they had been forced
down an hour sooner or later, they might
have been swallowed up by the ocean or
been lost in the wilds of Canada and never
heard of again.

Against the Swing- Johnson Boulder
Dam Bill. Senator Reed Smoot, on April
30, 1928, delivered a notable speech in
the U. S. Senate against the Swing-John-
son proposition for a Boulder dam. He
spoke for two hours and 45 minutes and
held the attention of the senators from
first to the last, because nearly every
sentence was full of information on the
subject. He showed that it was not pro¬
posed to build the dam for the sake of
flood protection, as alleged, but to obtain
power development, and that it was not
worth the money asked for its construction.
Were it built as proposed, he said, it
would be the greatest menace to life and
property, because it could not be made safe.
"Never in his senatorial career,” says
a newspaper report, "has Senator Smoot
spoken more effectively or more convinc¬
ingly than today, when he riddled the
arguments that have been advanced in
support of the Swing- Johnson bill, and
showed how Impossible, from an engineer¬
ing standpoint, would be the attempt to
harness the Colorado river in the way pro¬
posed in the pending legislation.”

The Earth Still Growing. According
to a newspaper dispatch, dated Suva,
Fiji, April 'll , 1928, the Falcon Island, of
the Tonga group, is again spouting lava
and has grown to a length of two miles.
After appearing above the waves in 1885,
Falcon Island partially disappeared, but
years later it was again upheaved. It is
in latitude 20.20 south and longitude
1 75.20 west.

Sandino Raids on American Gold Mine
in Nicaragua. Word has been received in
New York that the "rebel” general. Au-
gustino Sandino, on April 12, 1928,

raided the La Luz mine in the department
of Prinzapolca, and that they took all em¬
ployees, including Americans, prisoners.
The mine is one of the largest in Nica¬
ragua. It has been operated since 1905
and employs about 100 men.

A notable flight was that of Colonel
Charles A. Lindbergh from New York to
Quebec, April 24, 1928. He covered the
distance, almost 500 miles, in less than
four hours, maintaining an average speed
of over 120 miles an hour. The last part
of the flight was made against heavy wind
and snow sleet and with low visibility, but
with his usual determination the Colonel
went straight ahead and made a successful
landing. The object of the flight was to
save the life of a fellow-aviator. Mr.
Floyd Bennett, who piloted Commander
Byrd across the North Pole in 1926, was
lying sick with pneumonia in the Jeffery
Hale hospital, Quebec. He had been given
command of a relief expedition to Greenly
Island, off Labrador, where two German
aviators stranded on April 13, in order
to give them whatever assistance they
needed. On the way he was stricken with
lobar pneumonia and taken to the hospital.
Special serums were ordered in New York,
and Colonel Lindbergh was dispatched
with the medicine. He made the trip as
stated, but, unfortunately, he had not been
given the right kind of serum, and his trip
proved in vain.

Floyd Bennett, who accompanied Com¬
mander Byrd across the North Pole, died
at the Jeffery Hale hospital in Quebec.
April 25, 1928, of double lobar pneu¬
monia. About an hour before he died
he lapsed into unconsciousness. Shortly
before noon Bennett’s body was placed in
an oak coffin covered with bronze. He
was buried at Arlington by the side
of Admiral Peary. As soon as Commander
Byrd had communicated to the navy de¬
partment that Bennett, who was a warrant
officer, had died, he issued the following
statement: “I am going through with

the south pole flight. I want the flight
to be a monument to Bennett. The plane
to be used in the flight will be named
Floyd Bennett.”

Religious Liberty. The tenth synod of

718

IMPROVEMENT ERA

the Episcopal church of the Province of
the Pacific held its concluding session.
May 1 1, 1928, in the Tabernacle, Salt
Lake City. President A. W. Ivins, in a
brief address, welcomed the visitors, on be¬
half of the Church. At the opening of
the meeting, the entire congregation re¬
cited the apostolic creed and the Lord’s
prayer. The Right Reverend Walter T.
Sumner, bishop of Oregon, presided. The
Reverend Alwyn E. Butcher, rector of St.
Paul’s church, acted as master of cere¬
monies. At the morning session, dele¬
gates passed a resolution recommending
the senate committee on international re¬
lations to investigate further the proposed
world court. Congressmen from the seven
western states will be asked to support the
resolution. Resolutions also were adopted
favoring all proposals looking toward
world peace and the outlawry of war.

General Felix H. Robertson passed away.
April 20, 1928, at Waco, Texas, 88 years
of age. He is said to be the last of the
confederate generals. He was planning
to attend the confederate reunion at Little
Rock. Ark., in May. Resigning from the
United States army while he was a senior
in West Point because open hostility had
broken out between the north and his
home, the south, young Robertson re¬
turned south and was given a captaincy in
the confederate ranks. He had given up
his place at West Point under vigorous
protest of his superior officers, who assured
him that his skill and daring promised a
brilliant military career. The young soldier
participated in the shelling of Fort Sumpter
and was a parade marshal when President
Jefferson Davis was inaugurated. He par¬
ticipated in the Kentucky raids, as well
as in the battles of Shiloh, Chattanooga,
Murfreesborough, Fort Pickens and other
major engagements.

A Good Indian Woman. Mrs. Martha
Brown, a full-blooded Indian, passed
away. May 10, 1928, at Price, Utah, in
the home of Charles Johnson, one of her
foster-children. Mrs. Brown was born on
what later became the Uintah Indian reser¬
vation in 1840. She and her husband,
James H. Brown, came to Price in 1880.
The parents of Charles Johnson and his

brothers and sister died, and the childless
Indian couple took the children under their
care. Brown died not long after and the
family owe their upbringing to the Indian
woman. Later Charles Johnson married,
became father of several children and then
was left a widower. Mrs. Brown also un¬
dertook to rear this family.

Increasing the Indebtedness. The tax¬
payers of Salt Lake City, on May 5,
1928, voted in favor of a bond is.sue,
$1,500,000, for the purpose of building
and enlarging school houses in the city, A
total of 4523 votes were cast, of which
there were 2622 for the bond issue and
1901 against it, a majority of 721 votes
in favor of the bonds. A high school of
some fifty classrooms, comparable with
those of the East and West, is contem¬
plated. The school board now owns seven¬
teen acres for the building and campus site
of this school and the Whittier which ad¬
joins. It is expected that the new senior
high school will accommodate 1800 to
2000 students. The next major project
is an addition of sixteen to twenty class¬
rooms and other features, including an
auditorium, gymnasium and cafeteria, at
the Irving junior high school. Additions
are also planned at the West junior, the
Jackson junior and others. The Irving
addition is planned for completing in Sep¬
tember, 1929.

Beneficial Life Insurance Company made
participating. The president and directors
recently announced that, by unanimous
vote of the entire stock, the Beneficial Life
Insurance Company, Salt Lake City, Utah,
is now converted into a participating com¬
pany, effective January 1, 1928. They
will distribute to the policy holders, begin¬
ning January 1, 1929, as often and in
such amounts as is consistent with safety,
all their future net earnings in excess of
3i^;3 per cent on the stockholders’ invest¬
ments. This participating benefit extends
to all those now holding non-participating
policies in the company as well as to the
holders of participating policies. All new
business will be written at the company’s
present low non-participating premium
rates, but will be fully participating.

The Pope not Interested. Cardinal
Mundelein from Chicago, who went to
Rome with $1,500,000 which he turned
over to the pope as a contribution from
faithful members of the church in the
United States, in an interview dated Rome,
March 18. 1928, says the pope is not
interested in the campaign of Gov. Al.
Smith of New York, for the candidacy of
the U. S. presidency. According to the
cardinal, "if a Catholic were elected pres¬
ident, it would not change things one
particle.” He added: "The Catholic
church in America contends with no op¬
pressive legislation, has no political axe to
grind and lives and thrives under the ex¬
isting form of government. Therefore,
there is no reason whatever for it to take
a partisan stand.”

Jesutte Retaliation. Twenty Mexican
educators touring California under the
auspices of the International Council for
educational progress were not welcomed
at the University of Santa Clara, and the
reception scheduled for May 8, 1928, was
cancelled, according to a statement issued
by Father C. J. McCoy, president of the
university and a member of the Jesuite
order.

Ve Specialize in making up

Singe Curtains and
Draperies

Modern and up to the Minute.

Our work shop is equipped with the very
latest appliances.

Call at Z. C. M. I.

Drapery Department

Lei Our Decorator Give You an Estimate
FREE OF CHARGE

FOR THE SALTAIR M. I. A. SOCIAL, ORDER

KEELEY’S LUNCHES

Remember hoiv good they were last year!
For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, After Theatre
Let’s go to KEELEY’S
“T/ie Home of Good Things to Eat”

We Pack
Box Lunches
for Outings
Travel Lunches
for Missionaries

Light Refreshments,
or Full Course Dinners,
Waffles, Sandwiches,
Tamales, Meat Pies,
Ice Oeam and Frozen
Dainties

5 Popular Stores

KEELET ICE CREAM CQ

55 So.Main • 160 SaMain ♦ *160 Sa State -Wlliprs QindyDept.

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

FOR YOUR VACATION

Visit Utah’s Playgrounds

FOR YOUR HOUSEHOLD

Use Utah’s Sugar

SEE AND SELL OUR NATURAL WONDERS
BOOST AND BUY LOCAL PRODUCTS

BOTH ARE INCOMPARABLE

RECOMMENDED BY PATRONS. REFERENCES FURNISHED
Miade especially for L. D. S. Churches, and successfully used in Utah and
Inter-Mountain region, also in all Missions in the United States, Europe, and
Pacific Islands. Basic metal, Nickel Silver, heavily plated with Solid Silver.
SIMPLE, SANITARY, DURABLE
Satisfaction guaranteed. Inquiries cheerfully answered.

TWO OF MANY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mt. Cartnel, Utah.

We have received the individual sacrament set in good shape and, speaking in behalf
of the people of the ward, are very well pleased with the set.

Mink Creek, Idaho.

We received the sacrament set in good shape, and we are very well pleased with it.

We wish to thank you for your prompt attention.

Temple Block BUREAU OF INFORMATION Salt Lake City

Individual Sacrament Sets

NOW IN STOCK

Best in the market
Will last a life time
36 glasses in each tray

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

Wedding Bells

Always Ring in June

Our advice to thoNc ^vbo may be <M»noerned:

Right now is the time to decide who will make your Announcements or
Invitations. You should entrust this work to a firm that assures you the
newest in style and correctness in taste.

See us now, or send for samples and prices of Printed, New Process Em¬
bossed or Engraved Wedding Stationery.

Our line of Social Stationery is complete and I'rlccN Right

The Deseret News Press

29 Richards Street Salt Lake City

"I forgot everything I learned at college."

"Well, you can't make a living necking."

* a *

"You’re getting extravagant, John. Why did you tip the waiter sixpencef"

Hush. He gave me a shilling too much change; I can't be mean.”

* * e

"Dad, we're going to take that short-sighted bloke to the eye-doctor. He thought
a stick was a snake.”

"Well, lots of other men have done that."

"Yes. but see — he picked up a snake to hit it with.”

* * *

Safe from Burglars — A youth whose occupation keeps him from living in his home town
returned home one day to find the family not at home. The doors being open he went in and
waited but no one came. Before leaving he wished to give his mother twenty dollars. He
safely hid the money and on leaving placed the following note on the table: "Have been home,
be sure to look in the green vase on the clock shelf. — Bobby.”

Did Ton Ever Think
of This

If you are not specifically trained for some type of useful
employment it will not be long before tbe world will point
its finger at you and call you a failure.

Ours is a school of opportunity. Here you have a chance
to do the best you can, independently of what anybody else
may do.

EVERY MONDAY we open the doors of opportunity —
when shall we have the privilege of welcoming you?

L. D. S. Business College

Write for Information

“Utah's Largest Commercial Training SchooV'

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

Advertising Policy of the Era

We necept only the hig^liest class of advertisings. We recommend to our
readers the firms and goods found in our advertising pages

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE

Reneficiai Life Ins. Co.
Bureau of Information
Dayncs Jewelry Co.

Leseret Book Store
Deseret News
Dinwoodey Furniture Co.
Fleischmann's Yeast
Jus. Wni. Taylor, Undertaker

Keeley Ice Cream Co.

T^. D. S. Business College
Saltair Beach Co.

Southern Pacific Lines
Utah Home Fire Ins. Co.
Utah-Idaho Sugar Co.

Zion’s Co-operative Merc. Inst.

“My car's name is Hen."

Veil, if your car’s name is Hen. did Chevrolet any eggs?"

Servant: "The doctor’s here, sir."

Absent-minded Professor: "I can't see him: Tell him I’m sick."

* * *

"My husband gave me the most beautiful cut-glass water set for my birthday."

"Your husband runs to cut glass. He gave you your ring last year."

* ♦ *

Diner: "Give me a steak, iced tea and pie."

After a few hours the waiter returned with pie and hot tea.

Diner: "Where’s my steak?" the diner demanded, "and why did you bring me hot tea
when I asked for cold?"

"Keep your shirt on," was the gruff reply. "The tea will be cold by the time you
get your steak."

An Easy Way to Regain
Your Health

This business man from Sandy, Utah, suffered
ill health but found an easy way to get rid of
his ailment and regain his health.

“I am a butcher in business at Sandy, and have had considerable trouble with my
stomach, due to indigestion, and was unable to eat my meals without being greatly
distressed.

“Had read about Fleischmann’s Yeast and what it was supposed to do and finally
decided to give it a trial. After eating it for three months regularly I noticed a
marked improvement and 1 can now eat my meals and enjoy them without having
any bad after effects caused by indigestion

“In order to keep myself in the best possible condition, I am eating my Fleisch¬
mann’s Yeast regularly.” — I. H. Wright.

Eat three cakes of Fleischmann’s Yeast regularly every day, one before or
between meals. Eat it plain, or dissolved in water, cold or hot (not scalding) or any
way you prefer. Eor stubborn constipation drink it in a glass of hot water before
meals and before going to bed.

FLEISCHMANN’S YEAST

At All Grocers’

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PELASB MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

The Summer is a Good Time
To Read

D

The M. I. A. Gcncml lioiirilM

have already selected three of the books for your reading course.

Give yourself a refreshing treat by reading them during the Summer.

“SMOKEV.” by Will .Inmes.

A wonderful story of a wonderful horse — a Western story told by a master story
teller — If you like horses — you’ll love "Smokey” — if j'ou like a good story — you’ll
be thrilled with this one — PIUCE,

“FROM EM.MIGRANT TO IXVEXTOU,” by Piipinl.

An Inspirational story of struggle, determination and success. Just the kind of a
story for young folks’ inspiration and older folks’ encouragement. — PRICE. ?2.«0.

“SO BIG,” by Ferber.

When we say that this Is the best story' of this gifted writer — It should be your
guarantee that this story Is worth y'our taking time to read. A choice bit of
pleasure awaits you in "So Big.” — PRICE, 75e.

Deseret Book Company

«OX 17»:5 SALT LAIvE CITY, L’TAII

JOSEPH WILLIAM TAYLOR

UTAH’S LEADING

1872 UNDERTAKER 1927

Best Equipped for Calls Nigbt or Day in or Out of the City
Price of Caskets at Your Suiting — Services the Latest Advancement
Phones Wasatch 7600, Both Office and Residence
21-25 SOUTH WEST TEJIPLE STREET

Fire Is No Respecter Of Persons

You may wait till tomorrow to insuie
but the fire may not.

“Sec our agent in your town''

UTAH HOME FIRE INSURANCE CO.

IIEBER J. GRANT & CO., General Agents Salt Lake City, Utah

K HEV WHITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

WELCOME M.LA. CONFERENCE VISITORS

WEDDING RING WITH EVERY DIAMOND SOLD IN JUNE
DAYNES Jewelry Offers a FREE

A Dio'nos (llamoud tlocM not depreciate sind can lie exchanj^ed at any time nt full
value paid for it on a liierlier priced nione. Conveuleut teriiiH.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OP DAVNES WATCH DISCOUNTS

MEN’S STRAP WATCHES
As Low As S8.75 and Up

LADIES’ WRIST WATCHES
As Low As §11.75 and Up

Hemeinber

“That Buyer Galus Who Deals With Daynes.’*

Send or ask for catalojf on Xcw Imiiroved Dayncs
fa'anitary Saerauient Sets

• y* .

Suppose We Should Guarantee You the Fulfilment of these
Desires — ^Wouhl You Not Think it Marvelous?

Vour incoMie to continue even tliouRli accident or IIlnewH sliould suddenly snatch
you aivny o*l reuder you unlit for work. An income for your wife— ^ coilcKC
education f<>rVour cliiidron. The ottTiership'of your liome in ten years from now.
The possibility of retirement and the Joy of travel- and leisure in your later yeaWs.

Impo.ssible? Absolutely not. These dreams can he rcnllaied
fl 7-ou act now — Make today’s hopes, realities tomorrow.

A Beneflei.vi Policy is the Key to Success
Blots out your worries — Brings peace of mind

Beneficial Life Insurance Go.

Home Office, Vermont BldK.— Salt •I.nke
Heber J. Grant, President Lorenso N. Stohl, Mnnafircr

:rn’-'T’ VC to advertisers please . mention the IMPROVFMBNT ER'I